Rhode Island Independent Contractor Agreement Template
Rhode Island decides workers' compensation contractor status by an annual government filing, made separately for every hiring entity, on a form that is public record.
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Introduction
An Independent Contractor Agreement is a contract between a business and a self-employed worker covering scope, payment, ownership of the work product, and how the engagement ends. Classification is normally decided by a legal test applied to the facts of the working relationship. Rhode Island workers' compensation does something different: it decides the question by paperwork. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-2(7) defines an independent contractor as a person who has filed a notice of designation as independent contractor with the director pursuant to section 28-29-17.1, or as otherwise found by the workers' compensation court. Section 28-29-17.1(a) then sets the mechanics, and they are demanding. The filing is annual, it is made on a form provided by the director, it must be filed for each hiring entity that retains the person's services regardless of how many forms that means, and the designations are public information that the department furnishes on request to any employer or insurer. Rhode Island is also frequently described as an ABC state, which it is not. Its unemployment test, at R.I. Gen. Laws 28-42-7, is one sentence long and outsources the whole question to Internal Revenue Service factors.
Key Things to Know
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Workers' compensation contractor status in Rhode Island turns on a state filing rather than on the facts alone. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-2(7) defines independent contractor as a person who has filed a notice of designation as independent contractor with the director pursuant to section 28-29-17.1 or as otherwise found by the workers' compensation court. The employee definition at 28-29-2 separately excludes a sole proprietor, an independent contractor, or a person whose employment is of a casual nature and who is employed other than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business.
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The filing is annual and it is per hiring entity. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(a) provides that a person will not be considered an independent contractor unless that person files a notice of designation with the director, on a form or a form capable of being filed electronically provided by the director, annually, and that a person shall be required to file the form annually for each hiring entity that retains their services, regardless of how many forms are filed. A contractor with four clients files four notices, every year.
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What the filing buys is a presumption, not a guarantee. The statute states that the filing of the notice of designation shall be a presumption of independent contractor status. It also states that it shall not preclude a finding of independent contractor status by the court when the notice is not filed with the director, so a worker who never filed can still be found to be a contractor. The filing is a safe harbor rather than an absolute gate, and it can be undone: 28-29-17.1(b) allows the workers' compensation court to vacate a notice of designation that has been improperly procured.
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A designation lapses through inaction, not silently. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(a) provides that the designation continues in force and effect unless the person fails to submit an annual filing after receipt of a twenty day notice issued by the director for failure to file the annual designation, or withdraws the designation by filing a notice with the director that the person is no longer an independent contractor. The twenty day notice is the practical deadline to watch.
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The filings are public and they are shared with the tax authority. Any designation or withdrawal of designation form is deemed public information, and the director furnishes copies or makes the forms and designations available electronically, on written request, to any employer or insurer or its authorized representative. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(d) requires the department to send the list of filers to the division of taxation each April 1. Section 28-29-17.1(c) limits subsections (a) and (b) to injuries occurring on and after January 1, 2001.
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Rhode Island is not an ABC state, contrary to how it is often summarized. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-42-7, captioned Independent contractor and employee distinguished, is a single sentence: the determination of independent contractor or employee status for purposes of chapters 42 through 44 of the title shall be the same as those factors used by the Internal Revenue Service in its code and regulations. The definition it operates on, at 28-42-3(18)(i), reaches service performed for wages or under any contract of hire, written or oral, express or implied.
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The wage statutes exclude contractors by name but prescribe no test. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-14-1(4) defines employee as any person suffered or permitted to work by an employer, except that independent contractors or subcontractors shall not be considered employees, and the minimum wage definitions at 28-12-2(4) and 28-12-2(5)(i) are built the same way with an occupational exclusion list. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-14-19.2 creates a private right of action for misclassification with liquidated damages of up to two times the unpaid wages.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Independent Contractor Agreement in Rhode Island, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Independent Contractor Agreement guide walks through them.
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Rhode Island Requirements for Independent Contractor Agreement
A person will not be considered an independent contractor unless that person files a notice of designation with the director, consistent with the director's rules, on a form or a form capable of being filed electronically provided by the director, annually. The person shall be required to file the form annually for each hiring entity that retains their services, regardless of how many forms are filed. Build the filing and its renewal into the engagement process rather than treating it as the contractor's private administrative matter.
Independent contractor means a person who has filed a notice of designation as independent contractor with the director pursuant to section 28-29-17.1 or as otherwise found by the workers' compensation court. The definition is procedural rather than substantive, so the operative question for this act is whether the paperwork exists, subject to the court's separate authority to find contractor status without it.
The filing of the notice of designation shall be a presumption of independent contractor status but shall not preclude a finding of independent contractor status by the court when the notice is not filed with the director. Treat the filing as improving the starting position rather than as closing the question, and do not represent to a worker that the filing conclusively determines status.
A designation continues in force unless the person fails to submit an annual filing after receipt of a twenty day notice issued by the director for failure to file the annual designation, or withdraws the designation by filing a notice with the director that the person is no longer an independent contractor. The workers' compensation court may also vacate a notice of designation if it has been improperly procured. Require prompt written notice of any of these events.
Any designation or withdrawal of designation form is deemed public information, and the director furnishes copies or makes the forms and designations available electronically on written request to any employer or insurer or its authorized representative. The department also sends the list of filers to the division of taxation each April 1. Both parties should understand that the filing is visible to insurers, other hiring entities, and the tax authority.
The provisions of subsections (a) and (b) apply only to injuries occurring on and after January 1, 2001. The filing framework therefore governs current engagements in full, and the date limitation matters only when an older claim is in issue.
The determination of independent contractor or employee status for purposes of chapters 42 through 44 of the title shall be the same as those factors used by the Internal Revenue Service in its code and regulations. This is the whole of the unemployment test in one sentence, and it applies to the broad definition of employment at 28-42-3(18)(i), covering service performed for wages or under any contract of hire, written or oral, express or implied. There is no state ABC test.
Employment excludes services performed by sole proprietors and owners, partners in a partnership, a single member limited liability company filing as a sole proprietor with the Internal Revenue Service, and members of a limited liability company filing as a partnership with the Internal Revenue Service. These are structural exclusions keyed to federal tax filing status rather than to the degree of control in the engagement.
Employee means any person suffered or permitted to work by an employer, except that independent contractors or subcontractors shall not be considered employees, and the minimum wage definitions are drafted the same way with an occupational exclusion list. Neither statute prescribes how to distinguish the two, so the wage question is resolved in adjudication rather than by applying a statutory factor list.
The statute creates a private right of action for misclassification in violation of chapter 12 or chapter 14 of the title, with liquidated damages of up to two times the unpaid wages. Because the claim is brought by the worker rather than initiated by an agency, wage exposure can arise from an individual engagement without any regulatory audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Workers' compensation status here is set by a government filing rather than by a facts and circumstances test. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-2(7) defines an independent contractor as a person who has filed a notice of designation as independent contractor with the director pursuant to section 28-29-17.1, or as otherwise found by the workers' compensation court. Very few states put the classification question inside an administrative form in this way.
Annually, and separately for each hiring entity. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(a) provides that a person shall be required to file the form annually for each hiring entity that retains their services, regardless of how many forms are filed. A contractor working for five businesses files five notices and renews all of them each year. A filing made for one client does nothing for an engagement with another.
No. That description is common in summaries of New England and it is wrong here. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-42-7 is one sentence: the determination of independent contractor or employee status for purposes of chapters 42 through 44 of the title shall be the same as those factors used by the Internal Revenue Service in its code and regulations. The unemployment analysis therefore runs on federal IRS factors, not on a three prong state test.
The worker is not an independent contractor by definition for workers' compensation purposes, but the question is not closed. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(a) states that the filing shall not preclude a finding of independent contractor status by the court when the notice is not filed with the director. So the filing is a presumption and a safe harbor, and its absence means litigating the point in front of the workers' compensation court instead of starting from a favorable position.
In three ways. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(a) provides that the designation continues in force unless the person fails to submit an annual filing after receipt of a twenty day notice issued by the director for failure to file, or withdraws the designation by filing a notice that the person is no longer an independent contractor. Separately, 28-29-17.1(b) allows the workers' compensation court to vacate a notice of designation that has been improperly procured.
Yes. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-17.1(a) provides that any designation or withdrawal of designation form is deemed public information and that the director shall furnish copies or make the forms and designations available electronically, on written request, to any employer or insurer or its authorized representative. Section 28-29-17.1(d) also requires the department to send the list of filers to the division of taxation each April 1, so the information travels.
The wage statutes state the exclusion without stating a test. R.I. Gen. Laws 28-14-1(4) defines an employee as any person suffered or permitted to work by an employer, except that independent contractors or subcontractors shall not be considered employees, and the minimum wage definitions at 28-12-2 are built the same way with an occupational exclusion list covering newspaper deliverers, golf caddies, outside salespersons, and resort and camp employees. Because the statutory line is drawn without a prescribed method, wage classification questions are worth taking to an attorney, which is an option.
R.I. Gen. Laws 28-14-19.2 creates a private right of action for misclassification in violation of chapter 12 or chapter 14 of the title, with liquidated damages of up to two times the unpaid wages. That runs alongside whatever the unemployment and workers' compensation consequences are, and a worker can bring it directly rather than waiting for an agency to act.
No. The filing operates only within the workers' compensation act, where R.I. Gen. Laws 28-29-2(7) makes it definitional. Unemployment insurance is decided under 28-42-7 by reference to Internal Revenue Service factors applied to the facts of the working relationship, and the filing plays no part in that analysis. Note as well that 28-42-3(18)(iii) separately excludes sole proprietors, partners in a partnership, single member limited liability companies filing as sole proprietors with the IRS, and members of a limited liability company filing as a partnership.