Contractor Direct Deposit: Fill & Download for Free

It would be a breach of contract. If I were a contractor to your company and had contracted to do the job for (say) $10,000, and you only paid me $9,500 because of the “very small fee” for direct deposit, I could sue you for the odd $500 and I would win. In actual practice, I would decline to be paid by direct deposit and insist on receiving a check for the full amount. If that was unacceptable to you I would move on.

There is no way you're that lucky, but if you are, here is what I would do (the devious way):Don't tell your children. The fewer people know the better.Leave the money there for six months. If the sellers come back to claim it, give it to them.If some thug comes looking for it, give it to him. Try to learn about the history of the house to see whether anyone used to live there is currently in jail. If so, that's trouble. Don't touch the money. I'm thinking whoever hid the money might have died unexpectedly without informing any family members. In this case, you're safe.After six months, get another safe and find another place to keep the money, and dispose the old safe altogether. If someone comes back asking for it, say you know nothing about it. Maybe the sellers took it or someone else could have gotten to it before you, a contractor, the home inspector, etc. So many people have come through the house, you don't know who.Then go and buy reloadable American Express or Visa gift cards where you can refill with cash at a local store, like CVS - not the same one every time. Don't load too much into the cards, maybe $200-$300 at a time. Basically all your expenses from this point are paid with gift cards. Don't carry too much cash with you. It's dangerous. Use gift cards instead.That's being said, don't run back to the safe too often. Take out $10k at a time, divide it up among your family members and each should have a safe place to keep the money.For your job, don't do direct deposit into your bank, get a paycheck for every pay period. When you deposit that check, attach a random amount of cash, less than your paycheck or a little higher but not much, so it wouldn't seem weird.Then every 4-7 months, deposit a random amount between $7k-$10k into your bank, never the exact amount like $7k or $10k, and never whole dollars. So it should be like $7023.94. If you're married and each of you have two bank accounts, that's an addition $60k or so a year to pay toward your mortgage.If you have a side business where you get paid with checks and cash (one of my friends bartenders for fun), you can attach some more cash whenever you deposit.Once you have a decent amount of money in the bank, either buy a couple rental properties or pay off your mortgage. Please consider it a gift and don't squander it.

I'm having trouble figuring out why direct deposit, per se, would have any bearing on an employee vs. independent contractor determination. (I.e., my answer to your Q is "no".)An employee can be paid by check or direct deposit, as can an independent contractor (some of my clients pay me by direct deposit).While Andrew's answer provides helpful information about employee vs. independent contractor determinations, to the extent that his last (bold) sentence suggests that direct deposit, per se - the subject of this Q - is evidence of an employment, rather than independent contractor, relationship, I disagree.For more on this topic, please see "Avoiding the 'Independent Contractor' Trap" at http://dana.sh/lFer4S.