William Andrews | October 11, 2021
On June 16, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1532 into law, which requires Florida businesses to submit a report to the State Directory of New Hires for each individual who is not an employee but is paid $600 or more per calendar year.
Specifically, effective Friday, October 1, 2021, Florida businesses that have paid an independent contractor $600 or more in a calendar year must submit new hire information 20 days after the first payment to the independent contractor or the date on which the business and the independent contractor entered into the contract, whichever is earlier.
Previously, the law only required employers to provide a report for their employees to the State Director of New Hires and made it optional for businesses to provide the same information for independent contractors. Under the new law, information must be provided to the National Directory of New Hires for use by other state child support programs, the same as new hire reports for employees under previous law. These updates were implemented to improve Florida’s Child Support Collection System, which should facilitate the enforcement of child support benefits through income deduction orders which previously could be circumvented by independent contractors.
Reports must include the (1) name, (2) address, (3) social security number or other identifying number assigned to the individual under Section 6109 of the Internal Revenue Code, (4) the date the services for payment were first rendered by the individual, and (5) the name, address, and employer identification number of the business recipient. Questions on reporting can be submitted to the Florida New Hire Reporting Center at 888-854-4791 or by email at newhiresupport@floridarevenue.com.