{"id":1521,"date":"2026-01-15T17:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/?p=1521"},"modified":"2026-03-29T06:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T11:30:31","slug":"statutory-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"Statutory Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"what-does-statutory-employee-mean\"><\/span>What Does Statutory Employee Mean?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Statutory employees are independent contractors who are treated as employees when it comes to tax withholding if they meet certain conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Employers are generally not allowed to withhold taxes for the majority of independent contractors. Since statutory employees are neither considered independent contractors nor employees, slightly different rules apply. In the case of statutory employees, employers are required to withhold Medicare and Social Security taxes.<\/p>\n<p>The simplest way to look at it is to think of a statutory employee as an independent contractor who\u2019s considered an employee when it comes to tax.<\/p>\n<p>Statutory employees often work on a commission basis \u2013 a good example is salespeople.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"who-qualifies-as-a-statutory-employee\"><\/span>Who Qualifies as a Statutory Employee?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In order for someone to qualify as a statutory employee, they must meet three criteria. These are that all work must be completed personally by the employee, they cannot have a substantial investment in the equipment and property required for their work, and the work must be performed for the same employer on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n<p>Some examples of statutory employees according to the IRS are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A driver who distributes bakery products, fruit, meat, and vegetables. The IRS also mentions dry cleaning and laundry in this classification.<\/li>\n<li>A traveling salesperson \u2013 as long as the goods are \u201cproducts for resale or supplies for use in your business operation\u201d<\/li>\n<li>A full-time life insurance agent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>******<\/p>\n<p><em>See our full list of over 50 Small Business Terms <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/small-business-glossary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Statutory Employee Mean? Statutory employees are independent contractors who are treated as employees when it comes to tax withholding if they meet certain conditions. Employers are generally not allowed to withhold taxes for the majority of independent contractors. Since statutory employees are neither considered independent contractors nor employees, slightly different rules apply. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[15],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Does Statutory Employee Mean?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Statutory employees are independent contractors who are treated as employees when it comes to tax withholding if they meet certain conditions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does Statutory Employee Mean?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Statutory employees are independent contractors who are treated as employees when it comes to tax withholding if they meet certain conditions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zoomshift\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-15T23:12:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-29T11:30:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZoomShift\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZoomShift\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/\",\"name\":\"What Does Statutory Employee Mean?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-15T23:12:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-29T11:30:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9ba35c556ffdf9d8dab06992b17a4b0d\"},\"description\":\"Statutory employees are independent contractors who are treated as employees when it comes to tax withholding if they meet certain conditions.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/statutory-employee\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Statutory Employee\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Zoomshift\",\"description\":\"SMB Management Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9ba35c556ffdf9d8dab06992b17a4b0d\",\"name\":\"ZoomShift\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05af010fb3485fa8095793cfff89a5e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05af010fb3485fa8095793cfff89a5e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ZoomShift\"},\"description\":\"The leading scheduling software designed for hourly employees. 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