[mountainofdeath]

This is stupid.

In an ideal US world, where healthcare insurance premiums aren't insane and aren't skewed toward large corporations, then everyone should be a contractor.

The person hiring you sends you payment and you do the work in accordance with your contract. At the end of the quarter, you total up your expenses (as already allowed under existing law) and subtract them from your revenue. You owe taxes on what is left.

With remote work, its really hard to anticipate costs you do not control e.g electricity. Furthermore, even the IRS insists that only subtract expenses that are substantially used for work. Years ago, anyone with a home office would consider their entire mortgage a business expense. Now, its subject to a complex set of rules taking into account the time spent actually working and the relative square footage of your work area relative to your home.

Furthermore, isn't this creeping into the territory of company towns? At what point would it just be cheaper to throw people into barracks, deducting room, board and laundry and simply remit the rest to the worker?