Socialist Sawant Avoided Payroll Taxes by Paying Consultants as Contractors

So much for that all for one and one for all, when it comes to the campaign of socialist Kshama Sawant. Seattle''s The Stranger explains the many ways the socialist attempts to get around government regulations when it comes to her camapign as an advocate for more government:

 PubliCola's Josh Feit has been digging into how city council member Kshama Sawant has already spent almost all of the $51,000 she's raised for her campaign, and he's found some interesting pay practices. So far, a big chunk of Sawant's money has gone to five different campaign consultants. Today, Josh reports that the campaign doesn't appear to be paying payroll taxes, like unemployment insurance or social security, for those consultants, instead employing them as independent contractors...

PubliCola's Josh Feit has been digging into how city council member Kshama Sawant has already spent almost all of the $51,000 she's raised for her campaign, and he's found some interesting pay practices. So far, a big chunk of Sawant's money has gone to five different campaign consultants. Today, Josh reports that the campaign doesn't appear to be paying payroll taxes, like unemployment insurance or social security, for those consultants, instead employing them as independent contractors... 

Since PubliCola's original post, Sawant's campaign manager and one of the consultants, Philip Locker, who originally said all this must have been a "glitch," has clarified that the state records are right—the five consultants were working as contractors—but that soon three of them will become campaign staffers and the campaign will be required to pay payroll taxes on their salaries. The other two (Locker and Jonathan Rosenblum) will stay on as contractors. 

But, according to PubliCola, those two working as contractors don't have city business licenses, which may be required to do consulting work.... 

Cyndi Wilder, a spokesperson for the city's Department of Finance and Administrative Services, says "anyone working for himself/herself or as an independent contractor engaging in business activity in Seattle is required to obtain a Seattle business license" and that includes consulting services. 

But what about the bigger philosophical question here? Hiring workers as contractors to avoid taxes and rules is classic shitty big business practice, exactly the kind of thing Sawant would usually rail against. 

"We are absolutely against that," Locker says about big businesses using contractor status to avoid proper labor practices. But, he adds, "there are some positions [and] some times when it is appropriate for someone to be an independent contractor." 

He believes this is one of those times.