Best Accounting, Inc. is a full-service accounting practice that does work for businesses and individuals and, during the months of January through June, consults with clients and prepares their tax returns. Best Accounting has two owners who are accountants, three staff accountants, and five administrative assistants. At the end of 2012, the owners of Best Accounting realized that the volume of tax returns that it expected to have to prepare during the 2013 tax season exceeded the ability of its staff to do the work. However, the owners of Best Accounting also realized that the business did not have enough work during the rest of the year to justify hiring another full time employee. To address this situation, Best Accounting hired T. J. Moody, an experienced tax return preparer, for the six months from January to June, 2013.

T.J. Moody worked from his home office, using his own computer, but the returns that he prepared were prepared on software owned by Best Accounting and maintained on servers owned by Best Accounting. The tax returns were assigned by Best Accounting to T. J., and T. J. was expected to complete eight tax returns per week. Depending on the complexity of the tax return, T. J. was paid between $150 and $500 per tax return.

Was T. J. Moody an employee or an independent contractor of Best Accounting? What factors should be considered in making that determination? What do each of those factors suggest as to whether T. J. Moody was an employee or an independent contractor? What difference does it make to Best Accounting whether T. J. Moody is an employee or an independent contractor? What difference does it make to T. J. Moody?

Your response should be a minimum of 200 words in length.