An owner wants to split the revenue between themselves and an independent contractor (paying out every 2 weeks) - can you do this and if so, how do you do it in QBO?

If you don't already have them, you can create two Equity Accounts: Owner's Investment for any money they put in and Owner's Draw for money going out.  If there are multiple owners, you may want to have accounts for each to track who is putting money in and who is taking it out.

So your owner's payments will simply be applied to the Owner's Draw.

For the Contractor, are you paying off an Expense or Loan?  If it's an expense, you'll want to show that Expense and set up the other side as an Other Current Liability Acct.  Then when you pay the Contractor, apply it to this account until it's paid off.  Call it simply what the business name is (e.g. Joe's Contracting) and then in the notes put what it is for so the Accountant or others looking will all know what it is. 

If it is being considered a Loan, then you also will want to set up an Interest Expense Acct and split the payments you're making to show the principal payment to the Liability Acct and the Interest Acct.

Now if for some reason the Owners are having you pay out of this company and it's really not for this company (maybe the Contractor did work for one of their other companies) then it would again come out of the Owner's Draw, the check would just written to the Contractor.  (Again, have notes somewhere so down the road everyone knows what this was for.)

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@jmb001 wrote:

A business owner wants to split ( 50% ) the business revenue with an independent contractor. They want the IC to be paid every 2 weeks, so 25% of their "share" of 50%. Should I create an IC Expense account and create check payments that pull from Gross Income? If so, how do I technically do it?

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I see this as leading to several issues in an audit.

Whatever you pay the IC has to be tracked as 1099 eligible.  In QB that is not a problem however, in an audit, the auditor will ask to see the IC bills that you are paying - it does not sound like that is happening.  And without a bill you can not justify IC payments as a business expense.

If the IC is doing work that helps the business perform its services, then the IC needs to issue your company an invoice (your bill), and that assumes that the criteria to be considered an IC is met.  Absent that there would be  a high likelihood that the IC would be classified as an employee and then back taxes, penalties, etc come into play.

The only way I see to do it, is to write the check using owners draw.  But then you get into the gift tax exclusion if the total of payments exceed $15,000 a year (2018 limit, I don't think it has changed)

Oops...  Missed the "Independent" Contractor.  (need more coffee)

Hi Pete - thanks for this thorough reply. I hear you on the coffee!

I am combining your thoughts with Rustles and with your technical assistance, I will see how it goes! 

Again, I appreciate the time, energy and thoroughness of your response for a QBO newbie.

Best,

Joe

Hi Rustler,

Thank you for this flag.

I will try to reach the CPA and talk through these issues. I need to ask more questions about the independent contractors billing / invoice plan. I had not thought about the tax implications.

Thank you for also giving technical advice on how to make it work as is. I really appreciate your insight on the possible limitations to this. Also, I didn't even realize gift tax exclusion was an option.

Thank you for clearing this up. 

I apologize for not answering your other point. They are not forming a Partnership and I do not believe that the I.C. is planning to legally bind themselves to the business in any way.

I'm glad to hear that the concept is fine, so I will pay attention to the tax regulations and follow the CPA's advice.

Okay, I understand that the Accounting Forum question will be closed.

Thank you again for all of your detailed help.