Fifty years ago when you needed someone to provide care for a loved one you had three choices. You either used a family member, hired someone or hired an agency to provide care. A number of years later the government decided that those who worked for people on their own were often not being paid minimum wage and many didn't pay taxes.

     In the sixties people developed registries that provided care using the all too common Independent Contractor laws. In the early seventies the Internal Revenue Service challenged one of the larger groups, Helping Hands of Birmingham, Alabama, by suing them twice over a three-year span for misusing the Independent Contractor laws. Helping Hands won both cases and forced the Internal Revenue Service to recognize these registries as viable providers of Independent Contractor service.

     The item that probably swayed the IRS opinion was that the people needing the care were those who could afford care the least and care that used Independent Contractors was less expensive and more reliable.

     Today there are still people saving even more money by trying to be their own registry. They do not understand that individuals cannot meet the criteria essential for being a registry. They also don't understand that ignorance of the law is not an excuse. After each of the last four presidential elections there has been at least one cabinet appointee who lost their appointment solely because they had acted as their own registry. There are many people each year who have also discovered that acting as their own registry is very expensive.