This applies to for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations and political campaigns. Yet once again, as we saw with yardsign laws*, Kris Kobach apparently thinks this law doesn't apply to him.
A review of Kobach's FEC reports reveals no payments of Social Security taxes this election.
A review of Congressman Dennis Moore's reports, on the other hand, shows that he is following the law, as are Kansas candidates Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, Rep. Jim Ryun, and Rep. Jerry Moran.
Jim Sullinger of The Kansas City Star addressed this very issue on October 30, 2002, with regards to Adam Taff's campaign, writing:
"Under IRS tax guidelines: 'An individual is an independent contractor if you, the person for whom the services are performed, have the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result.' ... Paid staff members in campaigns usually take orders and direction daily from campaign managers and candidates and seldom perform their jobs independently."Kobach's staff salaries are marked as "political consulting" in his reports, yet one can hardly consider campaign staffers -- who do work at the direction of the candidate, in the candidate's headquarters, using the candidate's equipment -- independent contractors.
We assume Social Security will eventually get its money when the Kobach campaign staffers file their taxes (paying both their share and the campaign's share**), but this is yet another example of a campaign and candidate that wants to play by different rules; or worse, wants to make the rules up as he goes along.
* Scroll down the article for a discussion of Kobach's scholarly opinion that yard sign laws are unconstitutional. A similar story ran in The Olathe Daily News but they don't maintain online archives.
** Clearly, there's only one solution to this shifting of Kobach's bills to his underpaid staff...
Workers of the Kobach campaign unite! You have nothing to lose but the election!
