Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

  1. #1
    Member raspberry ice's Avatar
    Joined
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Central Standard Time
    Posts
    46
    Thanks
    1
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    Hello!

    I'm aiming to dance at Scores or VIPS in Chicago and I'm wondering about their employment practices. Anyone who's familiar with these, please give me the scoop as soon as you can.

    I'm used to working as an indepdendent contractor, with no taxes withheld or income reported by the club -- I report all earnings on my own self-employment income tax. This allows me to deduct travel expenses, which I hear you can't do as an employee.

    Will my status as a dancer at Scores and VIP be as an employee or as an independent contractor? Do they pay a minimum wage? How does this jive with charging a stage fee? Do they send you a W-2 each year? And does the company name appear on that form? Like will it go on my permanent record that I worked at Scores, or do they use some other corporate name for official purposes?

    I understand that VIPS is in the city of Chicago, while Scores is outside the city limits, so perhaps that makes a difference in their rules.

    Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

    Raspberry Ice
    (soon to be a Chicago dancer!)

  2. #2
    Senior Member Vixen608's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2005
    Location
    ILLINOIS
    Posts
    111
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    Hey!! I am in the same situation I just moved to Chicago and am trying to decide if I would rather work at Vip's or Scores... I actually went to Scores the other night and talked to a couple people that work there.. I do know that there is not a min wage but I think at Vip's there is a minimum wage pay....

  3. #3
    Featured Member scorpio's Avatar
    Joined
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    868
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    they make you do both. I know, it's a grey area legally, but they will treat you like an independant contracter, but pay you an hourly wage.

  4. #4
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2002
    Location
    way south of the border
    Posts
    25,932
    Thanks
    612
    Thanked 10,563 Times in 4,646 Posts
    Blog Entries
    3
    My Mood
    Cynical

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    from an operational standpoint, clubs treating dancers as independent contractors but attempting to exercise employer-like control is indeed a gray area. However from a financial standpoint, the difference between independent contractor earnings and employee earnings is strictly black and white.

    Working as an 'employee' in a club generally winds up putting the dancer at a great deal of tax risk. The reason is that, by law, employee dancers are required to report their tip income to their employers ... the employers are then required to withhold income taxes from that tip income, as well as paying the employer's share SSI/medicare tax and comp/unemployment premiums based on that tip income ... then issue the dancer a check for the remainder ... then report the dancer's total income at the end of the year via W2. The problem is that most clubs will not allow dancers to report their tip incomes because they don't want to have to pay the employer's share SSI/medicare tax and comp/unemployment premiums. This places the employee dancer into a 'catch-22' situation of being forced to simply not report her tip income to avoid rocking boats at her club, or forces the employee dancer to illegally report her tip income as separate earnings from a separate independent contractor job which doesn't actually exist.

  5. #5
    Featured Member Lizette's Avatar
    Joined
    Oct 2004
    Location
    state and main
    Posts
    1,071
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 39 Times in 19 Posts

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    VIPs, you are an emloyee. The money received for dances/champagne are "tips."
    Scores, you are an IC. Your credit card charges are reported though.

    Quote Originally Posted by raspberry ice
    Will my status as a dancer at Scores and VIP be as an employee or as an independent contractor? Do they pay a minimum wage? How does this jive with charging a stage fee? Do they send you a W-2 each year? And does the company name appear on that form? Like will it go on my permanent record that I worked at Scores, or do they use some other corporate name for official purposes?
    Scores, you are not an employee and you are not paid by them.

    VIPs, employee, min wage, still required to pay $100 house fee, get W-2 for wages, checks have parent company name (not VIPs). There is no withholding for "tips" so you have to save for taxes. It's recorded somewhere what you tipout to the house/hosts, so if the IRS asks the club questions about you, they'll know what you've earned.

  6. #6
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2002
    Location
    way south of the border
    Posts
    25,932
    Thanks
    612
    Thanked 10,563 Times in 4,646 Posts
    Blog Entries
    3
    My Mood
    Cynical

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    There is no withholding for "tips" so you have to save for taxes. It's recorded somewhere what you tipout to the house/hosts, so if the IRS asks the club questions about you, they'll know what you've earned.
    I'll try this again ... 'employee' clubs are required by law to channel all dancers' tip money through the club's payroll system, with taxes withheld and with total income reported by W2. If VIP is doing what you say they are doing, (and most 'employee' clubs DO try to operate this way) then the club is avoiding paying its' employer's share of SSI, medicare and comp/disability on dancers' tip income which would otherwise be necessary based on a percentage of each dancers' reported total income. In most cases, even if a dancer attempts to report her tip income to an 'employee' club, the club will react as if they are deaf dumb and blind.

    The problem stems from the fact that, legally speaking, the club is not in the wrong for doing this- the dancer is - based on the undoubted response by the club that 'the dancer didnt report any additional income to US, mr. auditor'. The other part of the problem stems from the fact that, legally speaking, an 'employee' dancer cannot report tip income directly as if she were an independent contractor business. This leaves 'employee' dancers working for VIP and similar clubs with a choice of two evils - either don't report their tip income at all and take the full brunt of an IRS audit if ever discovered, or illegally report their tip income as income from a fictitions sole proprietor business, and take the full brunt of an IRS audit if ever discovered. The only 100% legal course of action for 'employee' dancers is to report their tips to the club on a nightly basis, run that tip money through the club's payroll system, and be paid by check after tax withholding - which 'employee' clubs refuse to do.

  7. #7
    Veteran Member BabyGirlKylie's Avatar
    Joined
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Chicago/ Las Vegas
    Posts
    297
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    Dancers at Scores are hired as independant contractors. We do not recieve minimum wage. We are not required to report the cash we earn to the club, but when you cash in Diamond Dollars (funny money), that amount is reported to the IRS at the end of the year, so you have to claim it. We pay house fees, and are required to keep a schedule of a minimum of 3 days.

  8. #8
    Featured Member scorpio's Avatar
    Joined
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    868
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie
    The only 100% legal course of action for 'employee' dancers is to report their tips to the club on a nightly basis, run that tip money through the club's payroll system, and be paid by check after tax withholding - which 'employee' clubs refuse to do.
    this doesn't happen at VIP's. Venus checked. they tell you to claim it when you file your 1099 as money earned during IC work. you don't have a choice at VIP's to be an IC or an employee. youare both. if you are not comfortable with that then you need to find another club.

  9. #9
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2002
    Location
    way south of the border
    Posts
    25,932
    Thanks
    612
    Thanked 10,563 Times in 4,646 Posts
    Blog Entries
    3
    My Mood
    Cynical

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    this doesn't happen at VIP's. Venus checked. they tell you to claim it when you file your 1099 as money earned during IC work. you don't have a choice at VIP's to be an IC or an employee. youare both. if you are not comfortable with that then you need to find another club.
    But therein lies the 'catch 22' - by IRS rules a person working a single job cannot be considered as both an 'employee' and an 'independent contractor' at the same time. Thus for a VIP dancer to actually declare her tip income on her tax return, given that VIP refuses to follow the law and allow tip income earned in their club to be reported through the club's employee payroll system, the dancer then needs to invent a 'ficticious' business in order to have a place to claim the VIP tip income.

    If a dancer attempts to claim employee income from VIP on her 1040, and also claims tip income from VIP with the same club name and club address on Schedule C, the IRS computers are going to be all over both the dancer, the VIP club, and other dancers working at the VIP club like stink on s#!t !!!! Obviously, in the real world, girls who do work as IC's at other clubs can 'slip in' their VIP tip earnings under cover of their second/third club where they do work as an IC. Even more obviously in the real world, VIP dancers probably do not report their tip income at all - however this becomes a riskier and riskier proposition with every passing year as the IRS capability of verifying reported income versus automatically reported expenditures 'closes the loop' tighter and tighter,

    But you are absolutely correct that working for VIP or other 'employee' clubs constitutes an additional risk of unwanted IRS attention, on the dancers' end as well as on the club's end. My own accountant has absolutely forbidden me to ever work in a club where I would be considered an 'employee', because every 'employee' club I've ever run across is like VIP and refuses to follow IRS rules which actually apply to 'employees' - which in turn puts the dancer technically in the wrong no matter what she does in regard to reporting her tip income.
    Last edited by Melonie; 01-05-2006 at 10:36 AM.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Vixen608's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2005
    Location
    ILLINOIS
    Posts
    111
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Chicago Scores & VIPS employment

    Wow all this information is very confusing to me...but then I have never really understood taxes.. I have always had someone else help me out with them. So then is everyone saying that Scores is better from a TAX standpoint?

Similar Threads

  1. VIPs Chicago
    By luckischalk in forum Club Chat
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 09-10-2011, 05:32 PM
  2. VIPS Chicago
    By txchick008 in forum The Lounge
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 09-05-2008, 11:21 PM
  3. Chicago: VIPs, The Admiral, and Scores
    By FemmeFatale in forum Club Chat
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 12-08-2007, 05:13 AM
  4. VIPs or Scores Chicago
    By RicanAsianMa in forum Club Chat
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 07-30-2007, 01:03 PM
  5. VIPS in CHicago
    By blackbeauty in forum Club Chat
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 11-17-2003, 09:45 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •