Are you really self-employed?
When bloggers decide to become professional bloggers (writing for money) one of the first steps the blogger should take is to determine their employment status. Just because one wants to be self-employed does not mean the governing agency will agree with you. 
The United States and Canada have similar methods of determining employment status. For the most part if the company controls what you do and how you do it, you are an employee. According to the IRS:
Who is an Employee?
A general rule is that anyone who performs services for you is your employee if you can control what will be done and how it will be done.
For Canada they break it down even more. Here is the part that messes up self-employment for most bloggers:
- The worker does not have anyone overseeing them.
- The working relationship between the payer and the worker does not present a degree of continuity, loyalty, security, subordination, or integration, all of which are generally associated with an employer-employee relationship.
Most writers working for someone else have someone overseeing what they do, how they do it, etc. The writing position usually is continuous, some sort of security is given to the blogger, particularly if the blogger moves their blog over.
Let’s look at how most blog networks work. The blog network purchases a domain - meaning they own it. Then they find someone to write under a specific topic(s). The company dictates how much the blogger will be paid. There is a contract based on expectations the company has for the writer and some protections thrown in for the blogger. The contract will usually deem the blogger self-employed and responsible for their own taxes. That does not mean the relationship is truly one of self-employment if you are ever audited. You might be in for a very big surprise. So could the company you are writing for. If they mis-calculated your employment status they could be liable for your taxes in the case of an audit.
When is a blogger self-employed? When someone isn’t dictating what the blogger does and how the blogger does it. A prime example would be the blogger that sells their own advertising or uses a 3rd party to handle their revenue needs. They are in complete control of what they do and how they do it.
Protect yourself and see if you are really self-employed. Just because you are told you are self-employed or want to be self-employed does not mean your employment was accurately determined.
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