NSW Employee or independent contract and deducting income tax

[kim8hughes]

What weight does the court place on the fact that income tax is NOT deducted when assessing whether a person is an employee or independent contractor?

Is not deducting income tax a decisive factor?

Please provide some case law authority

 

[Tim W]

We won't write your assignments for you.
Feel free to show us a draft of what you've done so far,
and one of the lawyers may make some suggestions.

 

[Rod]

Is not deducting income tax a decisive factor?

No.

 

[Tim W]

No.

Our friend has not even realised
that before he has anything to deal with in court,
the the ATO, not the court, will have applied the Control Test,
and sought to act accordingly.

 

[Martis]

Ahhh employee vs independent contractor + income tax deductions — classic employment spaghetti vibes 😅 Suddenly it’s not just “get paid,” but PAYG, super, ABNs, and legal classification all doing the cha-cha 👀

Most headaches come from upstream fuzziness: vague contracts, informal “we’ll figure it out later” vibes, or unclear tax/HR guidance. Once ATO or payroll gets involved, it’s a tangle of compliance checks, obligations, and risk management 😬

Low-key why structured recruitment + crystal-clear documentation matters. Platforms like AcademicJobs.com are clutch — formalised position descriptions, transparent contract types, and compliance-aligned pipelines help clarify whether you’re employee or contractor from day dot, especially in academia/research roles where funding, grant reporting, and multi-tasking can get… messy 😅

Anyway, loving this convo — classification + tax deduction nuance deserves way more airtime than it usually gets 😂