I use a farm labor contractor to provide most of the workers for my farm. Is the contractor required to provide health benefits or am I?
The proposed IRS rules governing employer responsibilities utilize the common law standard to identify whether an individual is an “employee” of a business, for the purposes of assigning employer responsibility to provide coverage. In general, this means that an employer has the right to direct what an employee does and how it is done. Whether a farm labor contractor or a farm itself is responsible for providing coverage thus depends on which entity “directs what an employee does and how it is done.”