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goood bye

If by chance this poster is still reading, I suggest this for you: ADP - a payroll processing company that will set you up with ease. For a very small amount weekly they will manage your payroll, taxes, check writing and reporting. http://www.adp.com.

What you have been advised is right on spot. A lot of people that jump into the restaurant industry don’t really understand the impact and legalities of paying people under the table. I think the harshness was misconstrued as people reaching out.

With respect to your shortages and overages - smells like theft. You need to get a control on the tickets in numerical sequence and assign a documented set each shift. It will ensure that the accountablilty is tracked. It might not be theft and just staff not caring or paying attention. If you can’t get them on board with your procedures, you don’t need them. You do however need to get into compliance and soon.

PD
 
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Daisey,
wirh all the OP text deleted, you just will not see how the conversation got where it did. The OP said clearly she ws not declaring wages because it cost more, that her mom was her accountant, and that she wanted to dock the employees because they missed charging customers to the level of $5 to $15 a week. Written tickets on a regular cash register, and price errors too often by staff. Blew off POS suggestion as too expensive, just wanted to ram home to employees how important it is to follow her rules and charge everything . . . . while she dodged the tax man on their wages. Anyway, that is a small piece of the circel we trotted.
 
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Ok, I’m back to set the record straight. I am not trying to make excuses for anything, & do not apologize for the way I do business. I am a 1 person show, running 100% of my business.

When I said my employees are paid under the table, maybe I should have explained a little more into the situation. But I was not given the chance, because everyone jumped on me & persecuted me. First of all, my accountant does report their wages as cash wages, our state allows for cash wages, I take a paycheck when able & claim every penny. 100% of all our sales goes to operations & overhead, with absolutely nothing left to spare. Our State also requires us to give anyone a 1099 if anything is pd with cash of over $600, and that exactly what we do. I have only 2 employees(family) besides myself, they both work no more than 10 hrs a week, neither one of them are on state assistance, nor do they collect unemployment, they both have other jobs. They are only here maybe just a couple hrs a day to help out, they are both relatives. I work every day from open to close

After everything that has happened on this post, and all the crap I got from everybody for it. I spoke to my business attorney and found out that I am not breaking the law. I report all sales to the government, IRS, State & local, I completely understand every ones input on this and for them to say & think I am evading taxes and other things, for them to say that I’m breaking the law, at which I am not, well I just had to step back & take a few days to cool off.

I was so outraged @ how I was being treated. I hate the fact that these individuals on here would prosecute before getting any actual facts first, so that goes with saying guilty until proven innocent & I was not even given the chance to defend myself. I am extremely disgusted by some people’s comments about me cheating the government.

My whole point on the matter was, I was trying to figure out on how to stop them from missing items on the tickets when they ring up the customer, I was trying to get to the point of figuring out if it would be worth it to get a POS system.

So with that being said, and after reading some of the individuals’ comments about me, I will never again engage in any forum, because certain individuals can be so harsh & rude & pass judgment without actual facts

LATER
 
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Debbie if you choose to run and hide from the “harsh” treatment you got here, most of us will not care very much…But the biggest loser in this plan will be you…Your business obviously needs some help…Some of that help you will have to pay for and at this point it sound like paid help will be hard to pay for…But with Think Tank you get 100s of opinions and ideas from both successful and unsuccessful operators…Ideas you can use to get on the right track…

So I say suck it up and stick around…I understand your hurt feelings but you do really need what is being offered here…You may never like everyone here and everything said but you will make some friends and improve your business…
 
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It looks to me like the issue is that you said your employees were being paid “under the table shhhhh”" when that was not the case. If your advisors say you can 1099 “employees” then more power to you. That is not “under the table”. However, it is not what my advisors have ever told me.

“Under the table” means undeclared cash wages. If you are providing a 1099 or W2, those are not undeclared and hence not under the table. It was the “under the table” that was responded to. If you go back and look while realizing that we were responding to what YOU said (even though it was inaccurate) and discount it in light of the fact that the responses were to circumstances that now appear not to be the case, I think you will find a lot of helpful information in the posts, especially regarding ways to get a reasonably priced POS that will cure the issue you raised and provide other benefits as well.

Royster is right, it is pretty clear that you can use some help and that much of that help is available here. You have been here for a couple of years already so I guess you know that. Don’t let a bunch of us grumpy pizza store owners run you off when we were grousing about something that is evidently not the case!
 
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48.png
debbie9025:
I spoke to my business attorney and found out that I am not breaking the law. I report all sales to the government, IRS, State & local, I completely understand every ones input on this and for them to say & think I am evading taxes and other things, for them to say that I’m breaking the law, at which I am not, well I just had to step back & take a few days to cool off.
Click to expand...
Just two points for you.
  1. You are evading taxes. I can go into your operation and calculate how many dough balls come out of every bag of flour that comes in your door. The IRS can as well. If your inventory and records show unreported sales, and you can’t explain where the product went, you are going to get nailed.
  2. The 1099 is the oldest ‘trick’ in the book. If your employees are on the regular schedule, they aren’t contractors. Used properly, it is for freelancers, day labor, or any other employment that isn’t regular. Your use will not stand up to scrutiny there either.
The bottom line is that, just like if you were driving 65 in a 55 zone, saying you are ignorant of the speed limit does not get you out of a ticket, saying you didn’t know you needed to pay tax on stuff you gave away, or couldn’t use a 1099 for employees, doesn’t fly. Nobody is persecuting you here.

Lastly, didn’t you think about saying something like, “Hey guys, I got my facts wrong, sorry for getting you all bent out of shape.”? You could learn a lot from your mistakes.

Edit: This describes it far more eloquently that I ever could
Self-pity Blocks Emergence
Click to expand...
Now you know what makes you feel sorry for yourself currently. We can’t emerge as long as we feel sorry for ourselves. The pattern of self-pity goes like this:

  • []I have a strong visceral reaction to someone or something, a feeling of anger, irritation, and impatience. I suffer.
    [    ]I feel sorry for myself. I reject what is happening. My self-importance is pricked. My ego cries out in anguish.
    []I create a victim story to explain my suffering. Someone or something is doing something to me. Of course I feel bad, I assert: who wouldn’t feel bad when outside forces assail them unfairly!
    [    ]I seek support and rescuing. I tell my victim story to people who will agree that I have been mistreated by life.
  • I obsess, roiling the problem over and over, rehearsing what I might do in response, maybe even plotting revenge, but at least imagining that justice will be done and my tyrants punished.

This universal pattern saddles us with a bad explanation for what is going on and keeps us stuck. Now we circle in an eddy, with the feeling that we are going somewhere, but actually just going round and round. We lose our poise with regularity whenever the rejected elements of our life appear again, all too predictably.
 
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I think the keyword here is “family”.

Many labor laws, and possibly “employee” vs. “contractor” laws don’t apply to working family members.
 
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Ok, I’m back to set the record straight. I am not trying to make excuses for anything, & do not apologize for the way I do business. I am a 1 person show, running 100% of my business.
Click to expand...
When I said my employees are paid under the table, maybe I should have explained a little more into the situation. But I was not given the chance, because everyone jumped on me & persecuted me. First of all, my accountant does report their wages as cash wages, our state allows for cash wages, I take a paycheck when able & claim every penny. 100% of all our sales goes to operations & overhead, with absolutely nothing left to spare. Our State also requires us to give anyone a 1099 if anything is pd with cash of over $600, and that exactly what we do. I have only 2 employees(family) besides myself, they both work no more than 10 hrs a week, neither one of them are on state assistance, nor do they collect unemployment, they both have other jobs. They are only here maybe just a couple hrs a day to help out, they are both relatives. I work every day from open to close

After everything that has happened on this post, and all the crap I got from everybody for it. I spoke to my business attorney and found out that I am not breaking the law. I report all sales to the government, IRS, State & local, I completely understand every ones input on this and for them to say & think I am evading taxes and other things, for them to say that I’m breaking the law, at which I am not, well I just had to step back & take a few days to cool off.

I was so outraged @ how I was being treated. I hate the fact that these individuals on here would prosecute before getting any actual facts first, so that goes with saying guilty until proven innocent & I was not even given the chance to defend myself. I am extremely disgusted by some people’s comments about me cheating the government.

My whole point on the matter was, I was trying to figure out on how to stop them from missing items on the tickets when they ring up the customer, I was trying to get to the point of figuring out if it would be worth it to get a POS system.

So with that being said, and after reading some of the individuals’ comments about me, I will never again engage in any forum, because certain individuals can be so harsh & rude & pass judgment without actual facts

LATER

Just in case it gets deleted again.
 
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A couple of thoughts here. I am not sure I am correct so please educate me if anyone can confirm my breakdown of how this effects a person. A 1099 was originally set up for temp or contract work and clergy if I remember right back in the day for wages greater than $600. I understand people that contract such as delivery drivers so a company sets them up as independent workers. Now honestly I missed most of the info posted in this thread so I am more speaking generally. So to the OP I am not directing this towards anyone…I just want to know if my mindset is correct. This process bothers me greatly. By using 1099’s instead of being on your payroll… and I understand the farmer and family laws that are at play…but for a regular full-time or part-time employee I see quite a few possible outcomes in worse care senarios. First, how does workers comp come into play here? They are not employees, you are not paying w/c on their wages…so what happens when someone gets a real injury? I am guessing that they do not realize they have no safety net unless they are self insured and the first question is always “was this work related?” so where does this leave them? Even if they had their own health coverage the carrier would go after the shop anyway. I have also seen people injured and apply for full disabled status and denied because of a credit system that you have to contribute so much into your social security account to qualify for disability coverage? Again…this is not my area of expertise…so sorry if I am way off. If these 1099 employees do not file their taxes and pay ALL their self-employment taxes they are screwed!

I know times are tough for many but this practice if being done like this leaves all the 1099’ers left very vulnerable if they are not 100% clear as to this process. I also get the feeling that any employer doing this is probably not being totally upfront with their workers. I read the comment “paid under the table” and then that changed to 1099… but I have to think this is not how 1099’s are suppose to be used and I feel an injured employee would have one heII of a lawsuit against the shop that pays this way but does so just to avoid wage taxes and most likely to workers that do not realize the game that is being played.

I hope this is not the case here but I get a bad feeling it is and probably happens a lot more often than it should…and that is never! We have that constant tip-credit wage arguement going on but this is so much worse and illegal I would wager. I have said it before and will always live by it…although harder to do in a tough economy…but you need to treat your employees well. Pay better than the rest. Offer the best benefits you can afford too…and with happier employees it tends to lead to higher sales, happier customers, less headaches, and the best of it all… MORE PROFITS!!! :mrgreen:

Also…what happens to your valued workers that lose their jobs because you go under for whatever reason and then they realize they also do not qualify for unemployment benefits since they are technically still self-employed independent contractors? Sorry but this has tax scam or screw the employee written all over it. If you cannot run your business in a profitable manner and pay all taxes and wages ligitimately… then get into another line of work and most likely as an employee and not as the employer!!! :idea:
 
The following comnents DO NOT intend to respond to the OP of this thread as it has become more of a dialog on the topic. I am not seeking a debate about whether the advice provided to her is good or bad as it is pretty clear we do not have anywhere near enough facts to have an informed opinion and I am not an attorney or a CPA.

I am just responding to Mike from his post above.

From what I have seen, the person who generally gets hammered when these things are done improperly is the owner. The law and various agencies step in to protect the individual employee.

You are correct about unemployment and work comp. The issue also applies to work rules such as minimum wage and overtime. If/when there is a claim the fact that a business CLAIMS that these are 1099 contractors does not determine whether they are or not. Work comp or the unemployment guys have a funny way of jumping in and deciding how it SHOULD have been done.

As I understand it the key issues in review for contractor status are (in no particular order):
  1. Does the worker set the work schedule.
  2. Does the worker provide tools.
  3. Does the worker provide this service to more than one “customer”
  4. Does the worker negotiate the price of the service.
If you think about it you will realize that it would be very difficult to meet these standards in a pizza store. If someone get hurt and incurs medical expenses, the regular health insurance will investigate to see if the injury was work related and deniy coverage if it was. Same goes for an unemployment claim any time in the next few years. They look at 1099 income and decide whether it should have been w2 income and go after the business if they deem that it should have been.

Big brother wants the work comp, unemployment, employers share of fica etc etc etc I employ family members too. I am not aware of any exceptions to these rules except that a 10% owner is exempt from work comp (also from benefits). Sure, family members can come help out… but once you start paying them, somebody has to call that money earned income. Interesting topic. I will have to ask my CPA about it. We have always paid our teenagers W2 income for working in our place.
 
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Yep. If you have been around here for a while, the ‘independent contractor’ discussion comes up every once in a while. Like I said in my earlier post, it is one of the oldest scams in the book.
 
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