A number of provisions should be included in most IC agreements. All of these sample clauses are included in the Independent Contractor Agreement. (See Section E for a sample of how an entire agreement might look when assembled.)
The entire text of the following agreement is on the CD-ROM in the back of this article under filename GENAGREE.
This information can be used as:
- a checklist when you review an IC agreement provided by a worker to make sure nothing important has been left out, or
- a starting point to draft your own agreement.
These provisions may be all you need for a simple IC agreement. Or you may need to combine them with some of your own clauses or one or more of the optional clauses discussed here.
Title of agreement. Deceptively simple things such as what you call an IC agreement and yourself and the IC can have a big impact. You need not have a title for an IC agreement, but if you want one, call it Independent Contractor Agreement or Consulting Agreement. Consulting Agreement may sound a little more high-toned than Independent Contractor Agreement and is often used when contracting with skilled professionals to provide services. For example, IC agreements with computer software experts are often called Consulting Agreements. Do not use Employment Agreement as a title.
Suggested Language
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT
Names of IC and hiring firm. Do not refer to an IC as an employee or to yourself as an employer.
Initially, it’s best to refer to the IC by his or her full name. If an IC is incorporated, use the corporate name, not the IC’s own name—for example: “John Smith, Incorporated” instead of “John Smith.” If the IC is unincorporated but is doing business under a fictitious business name, use that name. A fictitious business name or assumed name is a name sole proprietors or partners use to identify their businesses. For example, if consultant Al Brodsky calls his one-person marketing research business “ABC Marketing Research,” use that name. This shows you’re contracting with a business, not a single individual.
For the sake of brevity, it is usual to identify yourself and the IC by shorter names in the rest of the agreement. You can use an abbreviated version of the IC’s full name—for example, ABC for ABC Marketing Research. Or you can refer to the IC simply as Contractor or Consultant.
Refer to yourself initially by your company name and subsequently by a short version of the name or as Client or Firm.
Also include the addresses of the principal places of business of the IC and yourself. If you or the IC have more than one office or workplace, the principal place of business is the main office or workplace.
Suggested Language
Names of IC and Hiring Firm
This Agreement is made between [Your company name] (Client) with a principal place of business at [Your business address] and [IC’s name] (Contractor), with a principal place of business at [IC’s address].