Ah, got it.

Recently, I was in the situation where I was performing a service for a company, and they want to claim me as an independent contractor, and 1099 me.

Specifically, I am an electrician, and there is an Electrical Contractor who provides service calls via an add in the yellow pages. 'The company' receives the call, but they send me to the person's home to make the repair. They get the majority of the service call fee, and I get a portion. It is their license, their company, and their advertisement. The homeowner knows nothing of my status except that they assume I am an 'employee' of the company they called.

Now, I would answer the above questions this way:

1. yes
2. no
3. not sure how this applies in my case
4. yes
5. yes
6. yes
7. yes
8. yes
9. no
10. yes
11. yes
12. no
13. yes
14. yes
15. no

16. yes
17. not sure of the meaning, but I think 'no'.
18. yes
19. no
20. no

So that appears to be at least 12 in favor of being an 'employee'.

My questions are:

First, based on your explanation of the test, it appears I could argue that I am an employee, and not an independent contractor, right?

Second, would it be more beneficial financially for me to be an employee, or an independent contractor (assuming I have no deductions to claim as a contractor)? I am assuming I would save more tax dollars being an employee, by avoidng the 13% self employment tax?

Thanks.