[Discuss] Mass Tax on Software Services and work ownership

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
> ...I think the larger point is the autonomy and freedom to own your work.
> 
> By making it very difficult to be "independent," it directly affects
> my rights to own my work.


Jack Coats wrote:
> I dislike it due to the limitations on independent contractors to
> build and use tools, and take the tools they build with them.  
> ...if you [write] code...it now belongs to the client. This I see as the
> major negative to this tax bill.

Have you guys cross the streams, or did i miss something in the articles
discussing this tax?

In an earlier thread, there was a branch discussing the early 1990s law
that imposes restrictions on the classification of independent
contractors, and then another law passed in 2004, that thanks to union
problems in the construction trades, further restricted the
classification of independent contractors.

These laws do have their intended effect of making it more difficult to
operate as an independent 1099 contractor, but they don't make it
impossible for an IC to retain ownership of the work. I mentioned that here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss at blu.org/msg07151.html
(last section of that post)

I don't see what that has to do with the new sales tax legislation.


> Historically if you wrote code,
> depending on how your contract is written, it was 'free for use' by
> the client and the programmer could ALSO 'take it with them' as they
> left.  This new tax blocks this ability.

It does? Where?

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/