Opinion ID: 1937458
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Direction and Control Test.

Text: The place from which an individual's service is directed and controlled determines which state's law applies where some service is performed in the state, but neither the localization test nor the base of operations test isolates a single state responsible for the employment. An administrative rule explains this test: When there is no direct relation between base of operations (the place of more or less permanent nature from which the employee works) and the place from which services are directed and controlled, the state where the employer is located and who controls or has the right to control the employee's services is the state that should be paid the contributions. The place of immediate control and not ultimate control is a significant factor. The place of direction and control is considered only if there is no base of operations. Therefore, if services are not localized and there is no base of operations in any state where services are performed, the place of direction and control governs as though those same services are performed therein. 345 Iowa Admin.Code § 3.24(1)(c). The test refers to a power which is exercised. Mallia, 299 N.Y. at 241, 86 N.E.2d at 581, 9 A.L.R.2d at 644. The focus of the test is upon the place from which the entire service of the employee during the reporting period is directed or controlled, and not upon the place from which any particular project is directed or controlled. The agency, however, concluded that [i]t is reasonable to assume that the construction project would be controlled and directed at the site of the project. The agency erred in focusing on the Iowa construction project rather than the entire services of the employees. The employer's representative had testified the services of the employees were directed from the employer's Wisconsin office. If the agency had focused on the place from which the entire services of the employees during the reporting periods were directed and controlled, it could have reached only one conclusion. The undisputed evidence indicates that the entire employment services of the employees listed in the amended forms were directed and controlled from Wisconsin during 1985. See, e.g., Mallia, 299 N.Y. at 240-41, 86 N.E.2d at 581, 9 A.L.R.2d at 643-44.