The Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Nov. 19 announced it added 250 new investigators to examine employment law violations, including minimum wage or overtime violations, as well as misclassification of employees as exempt or independent contractors.
The additional investigators were added in response to a Government Accountability Office report that found the Wage and Hour division frequently responded inadequately to complaints.
In response to the same report, the Internal Revenue Service said it will begin conducting audits of 6,000 companies in February 2010 with the goal of reducing the number of misclassified independent contractors in addition to expanding revenue.
The audits will include line-by-line reviews of employment tax returns and related documents and will initially focus on four targeted areas: payroll taxes, independent contractor status, fringe benefits; and executive compensation. Companies will be selected at random and will be audited at the rate of 2,000 each year for three years.
For more information on the IRS audits, click
here.