Independent Contractor Agreement – Trainer

What is an independent contractor agreement for a trainer and when should you use it?

This template agreement is suitable when you are engaging an independent contractor to provide professional training services to your clients on behalf of your business.

The purpose of the Agreement is to enter a formal business relationship between the Trainer and your business, where the Trainer will train clients on behalf of your business.

The Agreement is drafted to ensure that the Trainer remains independent of your business and is not deemed to be an employee, allowing you to build a business using self-employed people.

For any business using self-employed people it provides the essential starting point for the relationship.

The purpose behind any independent contractor is to work with an individual as a contractor, and not as an employee.

What else might you need?

It’s important to distinguish independent contractors, who are self-employed, from employees, not least for tax reasons.

Self-employed contractors can choose what work they do, and they can decide when and where they complete the work.

They are able to outsource work to others, they provide their own work equipment, and they often work for more than one client at a time.

They’re responsible for arranging their own tax and Social Insurance contributions.

They have fewer rights than employees.

It’s important to ensure that an independent contractor is not an employee in disguise – even if that outcome is inadvertent.

Getting it wrong can mean that both parties will face fines from the Revenue.

Both the Revenue and any industrial tribunal will be entitled to look behind the agreement at the reality of the contract.

Some of the questions they might ask are:

• Is this the contractors only work or does he work for others too?
• Does the client control how the work is done?
• Are the hours fixed by the client or can the contractor choose when he works?
• Does the contractor work on the clients premises, using the client’s equipment?
• To what extent is the contractor at risk as a self-employed person?
• Is self-employment normal for this kind of work?

You’ll need to ensure that your relationship in practice is consistent with what’s described in this document and conforms to the legal rules.

Our guide Contractor or employee? also provides helpful background.

You may also find our guide Employment contract or something else useful

And remember – It is also important to have a separate contract or agreement between your business and the client for the training services offered.

You should also consider protecting your business with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

There may be elements of the training provided that you want to protect and an NDA will help you to do that.