New Jersey seeks millions in back taxes from Uber
State says fees and fines are due over workers wrongly cast as independent contractors
New Jersey is seeking more than $640 million from Uber in taxes and penalties, saying the ride-hailing company misclassified its drivers as independent contractors.
The decision is the latest setback for Uber and other companies in the so- called “gig economy” that rely heavily on contract labor to deliver the services at the heart of their popular apps.
Worker advocates say that job classification hurts the laborers and the states where they live, which miss out on tax revenues.
New Jersey’s labor department told Uber it, along with its subsidiary Rasier, owes $523 million in overdue taxes from the last four years and is also facing fines and interest of $119 million, according to letters from the department that were first reported Thursday by Bloomberg Law.
Uber disputed the state’s findings. “We are challenging this preliminary but incorrect determination, because drivers are independent contractors in New Jersey and elsewhere,” the San Francisco-based company said in a statement.
The move was hailed as a victory by those pushing for better working conditions for Uber’s drivers. Many of Uber’s workers are part-time, but others work long hours and rely on ride-hailing as their sole source of income.
“I have clients who are Uber drivers that are sleeping in their cars because they cannot afford the basic necessities, they can’t afford a place to live,” said Shannon LissRiordan, partner at Lichten & Liss-Riordan, who has represented drivers in the employment classification cases. “That’s not acceptable.”
New Jersey has among the strictest tests for determining whether a worker qualifies as an independent contractor. To be considered an independent contractor requires meeting all three prongs of a test set up under state law, including that the services performed fall outside the employer’s usual course of business.
Worker classification is important because taxpayers foot the bill for unemployment or disability insurance when independent contractors file for benefits, said Robert Asaro-Angelo, New Jersey’s labor commissioner, in a statement. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development declined to discuss the case or say whether it is seeking similar restitution from Lyft or other gig economy companies. Lyft.