While there are some great benefits to this approach, businesses must be careful in establishing these arrangements so that the state or the IRS does not view the independent contractors as employees. The IRS uses a 20-factor test to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, but the basic determination boils down to three categories:

Behavioral: Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
Financial: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer?
Type of Relationship: Are there written contracts or employee type benefits? Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?

Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee? (IRS Website)

It is important to document the independent contractor relationship in a written agreement with terms that clearly indicate independence and a clear line of separation between the business and the worker. Basically, the business is contracting with an outside party to do the work, so that outside party must, among other things, have the ability to control when and how the work gets done, cover his or her own expenses and pay his or her own taxes.

Not only does this help a business cut costs, but it can be empowering to the worker. It gives the worker some flexibility and freedom as well as increased responsibility, since the independent contractor is basically running his or her own business.

The independent contractor arrangement is not right for every situation, but it can be an effective way to structure a workforce in many cases. If you have questions or need help with creating an independent contractor agreement for your business, please contact Vann & Sheridan, LLP. We would be pleased to assist you.

The post Independent Contractors: Cutting Costs, Empowering Workers appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

There are a few reasons that lawyers tend to use these phrases – some good, some not. The most common reason is simple familiarity – if an attorney has drafted a particular type of contract and had it stand up to judicial scrutiny (meaning, if a judge or jury agreed with that lawyer’s interpretation of the language), then the attorney can feel confident in using that language again, even if there may be a clearer way of phrasing. This can also make drafting contracts much more efficient – by using common (to lawyers, anyway) phrases for certain parts of a contract, an attorney can focus more attention on other parts.

The disadvantage of legalese is, of course, the fact that no one other than attorneys generally understands it. And since a contract is an agreement, and hopefully one that all parties to it will live up to, it would certainly help if everyone understood their obligations. This is the primary reason that many attorneys are trying to incorporate more plain English into contracts, when possible.

The most important takeaway from this is that, even if a contract is legalese from top to bottom, your attorney should be able to explain it fairly quickly in plain language and should be able to either explain why it is written that way, or how to make it simpler.

The post Does Drafting a Contract Really Require Learning Legalese? appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

On April 15, 2013, a bill was proposed in the North Carolina General Assembly to create a “research commission to study the need for legislation to better protect the right of persons to be paid for improvements to real property under a contract with the tenant” N.C.G.S. House Bill 901. The purpose of the bill is to examine the need to modify the current North Carolina lien law statute and determine if modifications or amendments should be enacted in order to better protect contractors who contract with tenants who lease (as opposed to own) the real property to be improved. House Bill 901 passed the North Carolina House on May 15, 2013 and the North Carolina Senate on May 16, 2013. The bill was then referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate.

Please continue to follow the Vann & Sheridan, LLP Blog for updates on House Bill 901 and other legislative updates.

The post Mechanics Liens and Leasehold Interests appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

Many companies are starting to stretch out their payment terms with their suppliers. Many times, the customers are adding weeks to the payment terms in order to use these funds for their own corporate purposes. For many companies, stretching out their payment terms is allowing them the opportunity to use their own cash for capital improvements, major equipment purchases, stock repurchases and greater cash control.

As we all know, when companies make slower payments to their vendors, this slow down causes a ripple effect for the vendor and their business model. This impact causes the vendors to tie up their own cash as they float the variance in the payment terms.

We all know the old saying “cash is king”. It seems like this more true today than before. With the banking regulations making it difficult for companies to use lines of credit or other funding, many companies have made a shift to managing their own cash flow operations in order to improve their bottom line. This model of cash flow management has become an improved way for companies to fund expansions or improvements without the need of traditional lending.

According to recent news and an article in the Wall Street Journal by Serena Ng, companies such as J.C. Penney Co, Dupont Co and Proctor & Gamble Co. “are trying to reduce the amount of cash tied up in day-to-day operations by taking more time to pay suppliers, collecting faster from customers or reducing manufacturing and inventory costs.” Many business owners have used this type of cash management for years. The difference seems now appears to be that more companies are utilizing this mechanism and are pushing payment terms even further out than before.

So, how is this impacting your business? Will this type of cash management by your customers impact your business and are you starting to since the slower payment. Many companies will feel the impact of the slower payment terms. Are you prepared when your customers start asking for longer payment terms? If you have questions, please let us know. We would be glad to talk with you.

The post Are Customer Payments Coming In Slower Today? appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

Responsive Design
One of our primary goals in creating our new site was to make our content accessible to all of our clients. This is a growing challenge as more and more of us are using various screen sizes, tablets and smartphones. Traditionally, organizations focus their efforts on websites that are accessed via traditional notebook and desktop computers. More recently, efforts have been focused on adding a “mobile site” that includes general information found on the “desktop” site. Although this is a great solution, our clients emphasized that they wanted to be able to access our ENTIRE site in an easy-to-read format on their phones and tablets. With this is mind, our new website employs what is called a “responsive design” that dynamically resizes to fit your browser. This means that no matter what device you are using right now, our website will change to give you a great viewing experience. If you are on a notebook or desktop computer, resize your browser right now to see how this works.

Clean, Modern Design
We are committed to keeping you up-to-date on the latest legal and business issues. To reinforce this commitment, we have created a new website that delivers rich content in a clean and organized way. Our new website has changed the organizational structure of our Blog and has added new categories to better suite our clients. These include Videos, Events, Webinar, Articles, Podcast, Press Releases and Archives. To further organize this content, we have made all categories viewable through our News & Events page. Our website infrastructure has been developed to make this content easily accessible and fast to load.

Social Features
How do you share information with your friends, family and colleagues? Whether it is by email or through social media sites such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook, we have worked hard to make it easy for you to share information that is important to you. In addition to commenting on our blog, you are now able to share our blog articles, events, webinars, articles, podcasts and press releases in one simple click. Try out our new social features by sharing this article now!

New Legal Pad Videos on Demand
We are excited to announce that Vann & Sheridan has launched a new Legal Pad Videos On Demand series through Vimeo on Demand. We will be making select webinars available through on-demand videos, available for purchase soon after each of our webinars. Our clients have expressed a great interest in being able to re-watch webinars and share presentations with their colleagues and business team. Our Legal Pad Videos On Demand will allow you to watch videos on your desktop, notebook, tablet and smartphone instantly, while also allowing you to download videos directly to your computer.

We hope our new website is useful to you. Try our new site features by bookmarking our site to your smartphone home screen, commenting on our blog and sharing our articles with your colleagues. We thank you for your thoughts and recommendations in helping to create our new site and ask for your continued feedback as we work to constantly improve our website and content. Thank you.

Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law | Raleigh Law Firm

The post We are Pleased to Announce the Launch of the New Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law Website | Raleigh Law Firm appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

Since this blog is from a law firm, a few thoughts on the legal side. If your elder has not planned for the latter years, you need to force the issue and not take no for an answer. Recently, I heard the tale of a husband and wife, both recently diagnosed with early-stage dementia, who did not have what is commonly called an “advance directive.” Some think of this as the Terri Shiavo document. Not the documents sole purpose, but a primary purpose, is to clearly indicate to medical personnel whether a feeding tube is desired should one become an option/necessity after the subject’s capacity to make such decisions has gone and whether extraordinary measures should be taken to resuscitate the subject. Having traveled this journey with my father, I know that had a feeding tube been utilized, he could have lived an extended period of time with a quality of life he would have hated not only for himself but for his family. Thankfully, he had verbally told us his wishes while he still could, and he had completed the form giving us the opportunity to make an informed decision on his behalf.

The key advice here is if someone has the opportunity to get their affairs in order, get them to competent counsel and get it done before there is any question as to the competency of your elder.

If you have children or you are entering the second half of your life, make sure you have updated your durable power-of-attorney, your HIPPA form and your will. And, again relying upon my personal experiences, as the ultimate kindness to whomever is going to be your caregiver, begin thinking about where you will live the last years of your life – even before you get “down.” There are so many more options than there used to be. The options cost various amounts and take planning, but I have watched those who have to place their loved ones in a substandard place in an emergency as opposed to the kindness of my parents who put themselves into a continuing care facility (independent living for the first ten years) in order to insure that my brother and I would not have to deal with these decisions. That decision was undoubtedly the greatest gift of love my parents ever gave us.

We are only given those we love for a finite period of time. Our parents and elders raise us and hopefully train us to be caring and loving. In the great circle of life, it falls on the next generation to care for the elders. Whatever your age, begin to think about how you want that last stage of your life to look.

The post Dealing with our Elders appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

Chad recently hiked over 2,650 miles form the U.S. border with Mexico to the U.S. /Canada border via the Pacific Crest Trail.  The included video highlights Chad’s epic journey. Congratulations Chad!

The post Chad Cochran Featured in NCBA “Members IN Focus” appeared first on Vann & Sheridan Attorneys at Law.

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