It won’t be better for you. That’s unlawful misclassification. I recommend reading this post and this post to learn more.

Normally, I try *real hard* not to work on nights or weekends, but this comment is killing me right now. I see this happen to far too many women who often don’t have ill intentions but are sorely misled by people who have ZERO business consulting them. Tell your boss/friend that I’m willing to speak with her for free about this. (Email me here to set up a time.) She is absolutely being given the wrong information.

The fact that the people she’s speaking with are attorneys bears no relevance. Ask her, would she seek family law advice from a bankruptcy attorney? Or contract law advice from a real estate attorney? No, because that’s a bit like going to a podiatrist for a cardiac issue, or a gastroenterologist for a mole removal, right? Law and medicine are both huge, complex fields. They’re so large that it’s impossible to master everything, so most professionals in those fields choose a specialty, or a few closely-related specialties. If she’s not speaking to employment law attorneys, she isn’t speaking to the right type of lawyer. I can guarantee that an employment law attorney would have a significantly different opinion about the advice she has been given. (I work routinely with employment law attorneys, so I know for a fact they’d advise the exact opposite of what they’re telling her to do.)

I would recommend that she ask for their qualifications and for the relevant statutes that back up their claim that what they’re advising is legal. I would also recommend that she bring up the fact that attorneys who advise clients to break the law could have their license suspended–or they could end up disbarred entirely.

I’ve provided a ton of links here, but I could also forward her state-specific information.

Anyways, when you approach her, reiterate that you’re her friend, and you don’t want her to end up on the nasty end of an IRS/DOL/state investigation. Let her know that for the last ten years, I’ve worked with salon owners just like her who were misinformed by CPAs, attorneys, and “consultants.” Luckily, a good deal of these salon owners find me before the authorities find them (usually thanks to professionals like you who genuinely care about the people they work for), but many don’t. Those salon owners only find me after they’ve been reported. I’ve seen women from the latter group lose literally everything, and it’s absolutely gut-wrenching.

There’s too much on the line. She needs to seek outside opinions. I’ll give her one for free if she wants it, but she should also seek out a local employment law attorney as well. Like I said, I’m willing to provide her with all the information she needs to verify my claims. Are they? If they aren’t, she should really be questioning why. She should also be questioning why the IRS and FLSA directly contradict what these “attorneys” have been advising her to do.

Seriously. Tell her to contact me. I almost *never* give people time for free at this point in my career, but if I can stop her from making what could turn out to be the biggest mistake of her life, I’m happy to do it.

In your situation, the IRS wouldn’t come after you–they’d come after the salon owners, but I find that prospect quite unlikely, given that you’re clearly the primary beneficiary from the arrangement and have no complaints. You enjoy an extremely high degree of freedom. Aside from the fact that the salon owners are paying you like an employee, you appear to be independent in every way.

I’m extremely cautious about worker classification, and while I’m not an attorney, I feel strongly that you and the salon owners have little–if anything–to worry about.

Where do I stand ? Can the IRS come after me ?

Using the information found in this article and this one, you should be able to determine whether or not your arrangement is legal. Typically, in a salon setting, if the business owner has control over the money and how it is distributed, you are not self-employed.