On our sister blog – Employer Law Report – Sara Hutchins Jodka discusses the IRS Voluntary Compliance Settlement Program. This program was designed to provide eligible employers partial relief from the federal employment taxes and penalties that typically result from misclassifying workers as independent contractors. Given the amount of attention that federal and state agencies are paying to this issue, it is important to consider whether your independent contractor arrangements are likely to survive scrutiny. Being required to reclassify individuals as employees can have costly tax and employee benefit ramifications, particularly as we approach the prospect of “large” employer health care tax penalties in 2014. We share Sara’s healthy skepticism about the program, but shoring up your arrangements now may save you a lot of pain and expense in the future. Read Sara’s blog post here.