WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2025 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced
House Bill 3185
By Delegates Worrell, Dean, Toney, Flanigan, Moore, B. Smith, Bridges, Foggin, Shamblin, Willis, and Browning
[Introduced March 06, 2025; referred to the Committee on Finance]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding a new section, designated §11-21-11a, relating to taxable income of residents; and creating the Taxpayer Protection Act designed to ensure that individual taxpayers are not misclassified.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
## ARTICLE 21. PERSONAL INCOME TAX.
(a) In order to prevent the misclassification of resident individual taxpayers as independent contractors and ensure the state rightfully receives taxes from employment, the Tax Commissioner shall implement an "ABC" test for an independent contractor follows:
(1) Absence of Control – Is the worker taxpayer free from the direction or control of the employer?;
(2) Business of Worker -- Is the worker taxpayer 's task unusual, with regards to the hiring employer's business?; and
(3) Customarily Engaged -- Is the worker taxpayer customarily independent from the employer? Do the worker taxpayers have their own business identify on the open market?
(b) A worker taxpayer is presumed to be an independent contractor unless a hiring entity or employer can demonstrate all three of the following:
(1) The worker taxpayer is subject to the type and degree of control a business typically exercises over employees;
(2) The worker taxpayer performs the work under the direction of, and is economically responsible to, the principal; and
(3) The work is performed under the direction of, and is economically responsible to, the principal.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the Taxpayer Protection Act designed to ensure that individual taxpayers are not misclassified.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.