Terms of Service & Usage Agreement
Comprehensive legal terms, statutory disclaimers, worker classification notices, and usage conditions governing true1099.com.
By accessing true1099.com, you acknowledge that all rate conversions, tax projections, and calculator widgets are provided strictly for educational modeling and scenario planning under an "AS IS" license. True1099 does not provide accounting, legal, or tax advice, and does not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship.
Permitted Use & Calculation Scope Matrix
Summary overview of authorized platform interactions, computational rights, and intellectual property limits governed by the complete terms below.
| Platform Capability | Permitted Use Case | Prohibited Activity | Warranty & Liability Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Parity Calculator | Individual contractor rate negotiation & scenario planning | Automated scraping or reverse engineering algorithms | AS IS ($100 Cap) |
| Embeddable Iframe Widget | Free blog or editorial website embedding with backlink | Removing backlink or charging third-party fees | AS IS ($100 Cap) |
| 50-State Statutory Hubs | Citing tax data and benchmark rates for research | Bulk automated scraping or data re-licensing | AS IS ($100 Cap) |
Document Navigation (15 Sections)
1. Acceptance of Terms & Eligibility
By accessing, browsing, embedding, or using true1099.com (the "Site", "Application", "Calculator", or "Service"), you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and irrevocably agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms") and our Privacy Policy.
Age Eligibility: You must be at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction) to access or use this Service. If you do not meet this eligibility requirement or do not agree to every provision of these Terms, you must immediately terminate your use of the Site.
2. No Legal Advice, No CPA Advice & No Tax Return Preparation
Neither true1099.com nor its maintainers act as a "Tax Return Preparer" under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 7701(a)(36) or Treasury Circular 230 § 10.3. Calculations provided on this website cannot be used, and are not intended to be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding tax-related penalties under federal, state, or municipal law.
Tax codes are highly dynamic and subject to frequent statutory revisions. Actual individual tax liabilities depend heavily on marital status, local municipal surcharges, itemized deductions, Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), health savings elections, passive losses, and entity structuring. You must always consult a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Enrolled Agent (EA), or qualified tax attorney before signing contractor agreements, altering employment status, or filing tax returns.
3. Worker Classification & Legal Misclassification Warning
1099 vs W-2 status is a matter of statutory employment law, not individual preference or contractual convenience. This tool calculates the mathematical *economic equivalence* between W-2 salary and 1099 contractor billing rates. It does not determine, validate, or certify whether any worker or role legally qualifies as an independent contractor.
Federal & State Legal Tests: Worker classification is strictly governed by statutory standards, including:
- The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Independent Contractor Framework under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (29 CFR Part 795). Note: while the 2024 totality-of-circumstances economic realities framework remains relevant in private civil litigation, federal administrative enforcement posture and prospective 2026 rulemaking (NPRM) remain subject to administrative revision.
- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Common Law 20-Factor Rules (Rev. Rul. 87-41) evaluating behavioral control, financial control, and relationship of the parties.
- Strict State Statutory Standards, such as California's AB 5 / Labor Code § 2775 ABC Test, Massachusetts (M.G.L. c. 149 § 148B), and New Jersey, where workers are presumed employees unless all prongs are definitively met.
Jurisdictional Independence & Regulatory Fluidity: FLSA economic realities standards govern federal wage and overtime obligations only, and operate independently from IRS federal tax definitions or state labor departments administering strict ABC tests. Given ongoing 2026 federal rulemaking, readers must independently verify current enforcement posture with qualified employment counsel.
Employers and workers cannot legally contract away statutory employee protections by mutual agreement or 1099 paperwork if the actual working relationship constitutes employment. Businesses face severe liability—including retroactive overtime assessments, unpaid payroll taxes, mandatory workers' compensation back-payments, and statutory civil penalties—for misclassifying employees as independent contractors.
Calculations and rate equivalencies generated by true1099.com do NOT constitute, establish, or confirm an independent contractor classification under the FLSA, IRS Common Law 20-factor test, or state ABC statutes, nor do they satisfy Section 530 safe harbor provisions under the Revenue Act of 1978. Employers, clients, and hiring entities cannot cite, submit, or rely on true1099.com outputs as an affirmative defense, safe harbor, or evidence of bona fide independent contractor status in any Department of Labor wage-and-hour audit, IRS payroll classification audit, state unemployment dispute, workers' compensation review, or private misclassification litigation. Worker classification is governed by factual economic realities and control, not mathematical compensation parity.
4. No Fiduciary or Professional Relationship
Your access to or use of true1099.com—including running simulations, fine-tuning benefit parameters, downloading rate negotiation briefs, reading educational guides, or submitting feedback—does not establish an attorney-client, CPA-client, accountant-client, financial advisory, or fiduciary relationship between you and true1099.com, its creator (Aman Suryavanshi), or any contributors.
5. Algorithmic Numerical Solver & Convergence Limitations
The 1099 vs W-2 Equalizer operates on a binary search numerical solver executing in client-side Web Workers. The engine computes target parity by converging until the difference between projected W-2 take-home compensation (plus employer benefits load) and 1099 contractor net profit is minimized (numerical convergence epsilon tolerance ≤ $0.50). This threshold represents an algorithmic stopping condition for discrete cent arithmetic and does NOT represent statutory margin of error, certified payroll precision, or guaranteed real-world parity.
You acknowledge that statutory tax curves contain non-continuous step functions, progressive bracket thresholds, deduction phaseouts, and localized rules (such as Washington B&O tax, California SDI, or NYC local taxes) that represent mathematical approximations. Results are provided for preliminary benchmarking only and should never be used as an exact payroll specification or formal tax filing calculation.
Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) Non-Modeling Disclosure: Elective state-level Pass-Through Entity Taxes (PTET) enacted pursuant to IRS Notice 2020-75 (which permit qualifying S-Corporations and partnerships in over 36 states to pay state income taxes at the entity level to bypass the federal $10,000 State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap under IRC § 164(b)(6)) are NOT modeled in this application or its S-Corporation scenario optimizer. Taxpayers must consult a qualified CPA or EA to evaluate entity-level PTET elections.
TCJA Statutory Sunset & Legislative Reversion Notice: Baseline federal calculations reflect 2026 statutory rates and inflation adjustments under IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Major provisions enacted under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)—including individual marginal tax rate brackets, expanded standard deductions, the $10,000 SALT limitation, and the IRC § 199A Qualified Business Income (QBI) 20% deduction—contain statutory sunset provisions and may expire or be amended by federal legislation. Calculations reflect current statutory law and do not speculate on unpassed legislative proposals.
6. S-Corporation Reasonable Compensation Audit Warning
Our S-Corporation scenario optimizer models theoretical self-employment tax savings under IRC Subchapter S by bifurcating net business profit into reasonable W-2 shareholder wages and non-wage corporate distributions.
Under IRS Revenue Ruling 74-44, Rev. Rul. 59-221, and IRC § 1366, shareholder-employees who provide substantial services to an S-Corporation are legally required to receive reasonable compensation subject to FICA payroll taxes before taking distributions. Setting an artificially low W-2 salary to avoid SECA payroll taxes is an explicit IRS audit red flag. You are solely responsible for obtaining a certified reasonable compensation wage analysis before electing S-Corporation status (Form 2553) or filing Form 1120-S.
State Entity Costs & Administrative Overhead: S-Corporation tax advantages vary dramatically by jurisdiction. California levies the greater of the $800 minimum annual franchise tax or a 1.5% net corporate income tax (Cal. Rev. & Tax Code § 23153, § 23802(b)(1)), and Washington levies a 1.5%–2.1% B&O service gross-receipts tax. Mandatory employee disability withholdings (e.g. California 1.3% uncapped SDI) apply exclusively to W-2 payroll, not 1099 distributions. Additionally, administrative overhead (payroll processing software, annual corporate tax returns, and state reporting) typically costs $2,000–$3,000 annually. Net financial savings generally do not materialize until net contractor profit exceeds $85,000–$95,000 annually.
7. Proprietary Rights, Anti-Scraping & AI Model Training Restrictions
All proprietary algorithms, mathematical reverse solver models, software source code, user interface designs, visual layouts, and the 5,800+ route programmatic SEO matrix published on true1099.com are protected by applicable copyright, trade secret, and intellectual property laws.
Strictly Prohibited Automated & Harvesting Actions:
- You may NOT scrape, harvest, crawl, data mine, or extract calculation datasets, state tax tables, or pre-computed programmatic matrices (
salaries-matrix.json,tax-rates-2026.json,state-tax-2026.json,federal-tax-2026.json) for commercial redistribution, mirroring, or resale. - You may NOT decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or derive algorithmic source code from our client-side JavaScript, Web Worker binaries, or binary search reverse solver (
reverse-solver.ts). - You may NOT ingest, harvest, or utilize true1099.com content, mathematical solver algorithms, calculation scenarios, or matrix routes for AI model distillation, synthetic training dataset generation, automated prompt harvesting, or training commercial foundation models, Large Language Models (LLMs), or competing automated tax calculation engines without prior explicit written agreement.
8. Permitted Widget Embedding Terms
We grant website publishers a limited, revocable, non-exclusive license to embed our calculator widget via the official iframe snippet provided on /embed/, strictly subject to the following conditions:
- The embed must retain the original branding, logo mark, and live canonical attribution link back to true1099.com.
- You may not mask, alter, obscure, or remove statutory disclaimers or Circular 230 notices displayed within the widget frame.
- You may not charge end users a fee specifically to access or interact with the embedded widget.
9. Disclaimer of Warranties ("AS IS" & "AS AVAILABLE")
Statutory Disclaimer
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THE SITE, CALCULATORS, ENGINE, CONTENT, AND DOWNLOADABLE REPORTS ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FREEDOM FROM PROGRAMMING BUGS OR TAX BRACKET OMISSIONS. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT CALCULATIONS WILL REFLECT FUTURE TAX ASSESSMENTS OR PROTECT AGAINST AUDIT DISALLOWANCES.
10. Limitation of Liability ($100.00 Liquidated Cap)
IN NO EVENT SHALL TRUE1099.COM, ITS MAINTAINER (AMAN SURYAVANSHI), CONTRIBUTORS, LICENSORS, OR PARTNERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF REVENUE, LOST WAGES, TAX PENALTIES, IRS INTEREST CHARGES, EMPLOYMENT DISPUTES, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO, USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR ITS CALCULATIONS.
UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED $100.00 (ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS USD) OR THE TOTAL FEES PAID BY YOU (WHICH IS $0.00 FOR OUR FREE TOOLS), WHICHEVER IS GREATER.
11. User Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless true1099.com, its maintainers, contributors, and licensors from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, fines, IRS or state tax assessments, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) resulting from or arising out of: (i) your violation of these Terms; (ii) your reliance on any calculation, rate estimation, or projection; or (iii) any legal or tax dispute between you and your clients, employers, employees, contractors, or tax authorities.
12. FTC 16 CFR Part 255 Commercial Affiliate Disclosures
In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255), please be advised that true1099.com maintains commercial affiliate relationships with select FinTech platforms, including Collective, Gusto, Novo, and PandaDoc.
When you click on contextual partner cards or referral links and register for third-party services, we may receive financial referral commissions at zero additional cost to you. These commercial arrangements do not influence our mathematical formulas, parity multipliers, or tax schedules. Our algorithms are strictly deterministic and based on published statutory tax schedules.
13. Mandatory Binding Arbitration & Class Action Waiver
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES YOU TO RESOLVE DISPUTES THROUGH INDIVIDUAL BINDING ARBITRATION AND LIMITS YOUR ABILITY TO SEEK RELIEF IN A COURT OF LAW.
Any controversy, claim, or dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms, your use of the Site, or the calculation engine shall be resolved exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect, except as modified herein. The arbitration shall be conducted by a single neutral arbitrator and may proceed remotely via telephone, videoconference, or written submissions to minimize travel burdens.
Delegation Clause: The arbitrator, and not any federal, state, or local court or agency, shall have exclusive authority to resolve any dispute relating to the interpretation, applicability, enforceability, or formation of this contract, including any claim that all or any part of these Terms is void or voidable.
Class Action Waiver: YOU AND TRUE1099.COM AGREE THAT ANY ARBITRATION OR PROCEEDING SHALL BE CONDUCTED SOLELY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS. YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO COMMENCE, JOIN, OR PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLASS ACTION, COLLECTIVE ARBITRATION, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING AGAINST TRUE1099.COM OR ITS OPERATORS.
Small Claims & 30-Day Opt-Out: Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring an individual action in a small claims court of competent jurisdiction. You have the right to opt out of this arbitration agreement within thirty (30) days of your first visit or use of the Site by sending an explicit written opt-out notice to amansurya.work@gmail.com stating your name, intent to opt out, and the date of notice.
14. Governing Law, Jurisdiction & Severability
These Terms and any dispute arising from them shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. If any provision of these Terms or the arbitration agreement is held unlawful, void, or unenforceable by an arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction, that specific provision shall be deemed severable and shall not impair the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
15. Contact & Formal Legal Notices
We provide two direct channels for inquiries, bug reports, feature suggestions, and formal legal communications:
For instant bug reports, tax calculation questions, and feature suggestions with 100% in-browser privacy:
Open Feedback Drawer →For official legal notices, enterprise licensing, or formal compliance inquiries:
amansurya.work@gmail.com →