Employers must take care when classifying workers as independent contractors.

It has come to the attention of the IRS that the series of natural disasters over the last several months have triggered a spike in the number of independent contractors hired to help businesses with clean-up and construction or meet an increased demand for their goods and services. However, as the IRS has also discovered, there has been an increase in the number of misclassified workers--individuals who should have been hired as employees rather than independent contractors.

Situations such as the one noted in "Payroll News and Views" on page 5 have motivated the IRS to remind employers across the country of the need to classify workers correctly. Employers (that is, their payroll departments) must withhold income taxes, withhold and pay FICA taxes, pay …