My wife is a commercial realtor and paid an paid an assistant at one time. She paid all the taxes and fees to the government. At some point, she decided to start paying her as a contractor and and 1099’d her at the end of the year. The IRS took $700 out of our personal account because the figured we just didn’t claim or pay the taxes. No trial, no notice, no nothing. We got it back, but it took awhile.
Now you know what businesses go through all the time. My company was in court for years with the government claiming our 1099 folks were employees as opposed to contractors. It took years, but we won. Nothing on this thread is new and has been going on for decades, centuries, etc.