Someone asked me if chiropractic offices subject to OSHA. If they have one employee, they are. And many business owners forget that there are several parts to the OSHA regulations. Briefly, you must comply with regulations:
1. For fire safety and egress (getting people out of the building in a fire)
2. Communicating to employees about hazardous substances in the office
3. Keeping records on incidents
4. Blood-borne pathogens (not as strictly as a medical office where blood is drawn, but you must still have a written plan
5. You must offer employees the option of getting a Hep-B vaccine, especiallly if they are exposed.
See Planning for Practice Success for more information on this subject.
Another new twist on an old story: A soon-to-be grad came to me with a deal from a doctor which had her working for 6 months as an associate (employee) and then she would start working as an independent contractor (NOT an employee). How is this possible? I didn’t see anything in what she told me that would make the difference. Remember that the IRS assumes employee status unless they have some evidence to the contrary. Someone who is working as an employee doesn’t just magically become an independent contractor unless he or she is now in a separate business and paying rent. Let me know if you have questions about this.
Or read Planning for Practice Success to find out more.
If you are hiring your first employee, you may be confused about the many requirements for processing and paying employees. And you may have considered outsourcing your payroll – having someone else do it. The logical person is your CPA; he or she may have a bookkeeping person on staff who can help with this task. Another possibility, if you have just one employee, is to use your accounting software (like QuickBooks) do the work. A third possibility is to have an outside service do this work – Paychex or ADP are national companies that can do this, and QuickBooks also has a service.
Whatever you do, don’t hire that first employee without figuring out WHO will be collecting information, processing payroll, paying the payroll taxes and sending in reports. To paraphrase an old commercial “It’s not nice to fool with the IRS.”
For complete information on this subject, check out my e-book “Paying Your Employees” on the dcpracticesuccess.com website.
