Indiana: employee or independent contractor?
The test depends on which law you're dealing with. A worker can be a contractor for one law and an employee for another.
| Law | Test | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment insurance | ABC | IC 22-4-8-1(b) |
| Federal income tax, FICA, FUTA | IRS common-law test | IRS |
| Federal minimum wage and overtime | Economic reality test (FLSA) | DOL |
The ABC test
Under Indiana's unemployment law, a worker is an employee unless all three parts are met:
(1) free from control and direction in connection with the performance of such service, both under the individual's contract of service and in fact; (2) the service is performed outside the usual course of the business for which the service is performed; (3) customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed, or a sales agent paid solely on commission who is the master of the individual's own time and effort.
Details and exceptions
- effective_date is the DOL table baseline (in effect on or before 2023-01-01); the enactment date was not checked.
- DOL Table 1-4 also lists an IRS test for Indiana; IC 22-4-8-3 (services not included; determination of status) was not checked in this pass.
- Workers' comp test not checked in this pass (Business insurance lane).
Law: IC 22-4-8-1(b)
Running payroll in Indiana?
Recent changes
Last verified against the official source on October 9, 2026.
No changes recorded since we started tracking this page.
Sources
- Indiana General Assembly (2026 Indiana Code) · data as of October 8, 2026 · last checked October 9, 2026
We copy figures from official sources and re-check them against the source before every update. See our methodology. This is general information, not legal advice.