Dear Contractor:

Tax fraud has been a detriment to the construction industry for many years and continues to get worse in our region. Unscrupulous contractors have been undercutting reputable construction firms by intentionally misclassifying their workers as independent contractors to escape the taxes and insurance they are responsible for on their employees. Data shows that $8.4 billion a year is lost to construction industry tax fraud. This disregard for the law puts upstanding contractors that play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage. Together, we must address this issue. 

Over a year ago, the St. Louis – Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council moved forward in negotiations with the Parson Administration to create a task force that targets this issue head on. We were ultimately successful in working with Missouri Governor Mike Parson to create the Interagency Task Force on Worker Classification by Executive Order late this year. 

With the creation of this task force, we plan to start focusing attention on some of these bad actors that have been cheating the system and undercutting responsible contractors like yourselves. We think this is another tool to help level the playing field for contractors that play by the rules. 

While we completely understand that there are legitimate independent contractors and subcontractors, our goal is to target the folks that are knowingly and intentionally classifying what should be employees as independent contractors and using undocumented workers for these purposes as well. 

We hope for the same support and partnership on this issue that we have had on many other issues in the past. We would greatly appreciate your help in identifying known, or suspected, contractors that intentionally misclassify workers so that we can alert the state’s new task force. 

Please contact your local Carpenters Regional Council business agent or call (314) 644-7256 to anonymously report suspected tax fraud. 

Sincerely, 

Al Bond 
Executive Secretary-Treasurer