Visual FX Digital Artists Guild

We’ve discussed how studios use Employers of Record to get freelance artists to pay their own taxes. It looks like The Mill in Santa Monica is using Yurcor at the expense of their artists.

The Animation Guild belives that artists may have recourse to recover these lost wages.

If you have worked at or are currently working at The Mill in Santa Monica, The Animation Guild is interested in speaking with you. Contact Steve Kaplan at the Guild at  (818) 845-7500 or skaplan@animationguild.org.

From The Animation Guild Blog:

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/latest-vfx-scam-artists-paying-all.html

The Mill has engaged Yurcor to act as the Employer of Record for the artists they employ. Officially, artists work for Yurcor and are “loaned out” to The Mill. Yurcor is therefore responsible for the reimbursement to the artists for their work time at The Mill.

The Mill explains this has allowed them to:

“meet compliance requirements and improve administrative support to [their] valued freelancers.

By using Yurcor’s services you gain W-2 status and many of the benefits and services of a full time position while keeping all the career freedom and tax savings of a 1099 freelancer.”

A full-time employee keeping the “freedom” of a freelance employee sound to good to be true? It should. Its also illegal.

To give that feeling of freedom, Yurcor not only withholds the traditional payroll taxes employees are responsible to pay (Fed Income, FICA, CA Income and SDI). They also withhold the employer portions of FICA, FUTA, California state unemployment insurance (UI), and the employer workers compensation insurance.

Let us know if you’re working at a studio that employs you through an employer of record and makes you pay the taxes typically reserved for employers or real 1099 contractors. We’ll get the word out and hopefully things will change.

In this scathing article from Variety,  reporter Karen Idelson blows the lid on bottom feeding producers who take advantage of state mandated tax incentives and screw artists out of their pay.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118044078/

In less than a year at least a half-dozen artists were chasing a producer for $50,000 in unpaid wages, while Maxsar Digital was forced to close. Production incentive programs can lure legitimate productions and bring a lot of money into the state. But they can also attracts bottom-feeders who can tap into the state’s allotted funds.

If you’re working for a company and they are late with a paycheck for _ANY REASON_ don’t hesitate to walk out. It doesn’t matter if your supervisor begs and pleads with you to help “the team” because what they are really doing is helping themselves at your expense.

No Pay = No Work

The only leverage you have over your employer in this situation is the unfinished work. Once the work is finished you have little bargaining power.

Don’t let yourself get manipulated.