Angela has an annual contract with Stenbach Service Centre to provide property maintenance services; this includes lawn care, snow removal and parking lot maintenance. Angela spends, on average, 20 hours per week working at the company’s premises and is paid a flat amount monthly. She hires part-time workers, when necessary, to assist her. Angela does not have any other clients. Angela uses her own small tools; however the company supplies and maintains a riding lawn mower and a snow plow for her use. Her contact at the company is Chris Moore, the Facilities Manager, who meets with her every Monday to discuss the work to be done that week. Chris approves Angela’s monthly invoices and submits them to Accounts Payable.

Does Angela have a contract of service or a contract for service with Stenbach Service Centre As the company’s Payroll Supervisor, explain to Chris the process and factors you used to make your decision.

Angela and Stenbach Service Centre

Contract for Service and Contract of Service:

1. Angela has a contract for service.

2. Factors used to decide whether a contract is for service or of service:

a) Employment terms are slightly different from business contract terms.

b) Employees are paid Wages and Salaries, while contractors are paid fees.

c) Employees do not submit monthly invoices for payment, but contractors do.

d) Angela fills tax forms for herself and remits the taxes, so she is self-accounting with respect to her income taxes, unless withholding taxes like Sales taxes.  An employee's income tax is deducted from her salary before payment and the company remits the taxes to the IRS.

Explanation:

The agreement between Angela, a self-employed individual, and Stenbach Service Centre is a contract for service.   A contract of service is an employment contract between Stenbach Service Centre, the employer, and the Payables Supervisor, an employee, for example.  Essentially, Angela can be described as an outsourcer for services vendor or service provider to Stenbach Service Centre, an outsourcer of service company.  Angela is engaged for a fee to carry out property maintenance services, including lawn care, snow removal, and parking lot maintenance.  She is an independent contractor with Stenbach.  She does not need to work on any day and she can subcontract her work by hiring others to help her discharge the service.  An employee, like Chris, cannot hire another person to discharge his responsibilities and must work on designed days.

Another important difference is that Angela submits monthly invoices for actual work done.  An employee does not have to submit an invoice in order to be paid for work done.  Angela's invoices will not be of the same amount from one month to the other, unlike Chris' whose salary pay sheet may be static in amount from month to month.  

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