Is a W2 or a 1099 Better for a Veterinarian? | Veterinarians

Let’s just take what a W2 and 1099 mean and then the employment relationship between both of those. And then kind of talk about which one is probably better for the vet. First, if you are a W2 employee, you are an employee, you’re not an independent contractor, and you’ve signed an employment agreement. And so, the taxes will be taken from whatever your compensation is biweekly, monthly, whatever their pay period is. 

Benefits of a W2 Employee

In a normal employment relationship, the benefits you’re going to get would be:

• Malpractice insurance
• Health
• Insurance
• Vision
• Dental
• Life
• Disability
• Retirement
• they’ll pay for your license
• DEA registration if necessary
• Credentialing

So, they will pay for all the normal things that kind of go into being a vet. 

Cons of a 1099 Independent Contractors

Whereas if you are a 1099, you are an independent contractor, you’ve signed an independent contractor agreement with the employer, and you are not an employee, meaning, no taxes are taken out of your payment, so they’ll just pay you. And then ultimately, it will be your responsibility to then pay the state and the federal government for any of the taxes. 

Now, when you are an independent contractor, the employer, generally, isn’t going to provide any of those benefits at all. Sometimes, they’ll pay for the underlying malpractice insurance, although malpractice insurance is extraordinarily reasonable for vets. It could be $300 or $400 a year for a general vet. They’re not going to pay for your license, for your DEA. They won’t provide benefits.

So, no health, vision, dental, disability, life retirement. You’re just not going to get that stuff if you’re an independent contractor. Why would you be an independent contractor if you’re not going to get any of those things? Well, I guess it would come down to compensation. You should make more theoretically as an independent contractor to kind of offset not getting all those benefits. If you’re going to have a hundred thousand dollars offer from an employer when you’re going to be an employee. And they’re offering you all those benefits. And then they will offer you a hundred thousand dollars to be an independent contractor and not provide any of those benefits. It’s just not as good of an offer. 

Why Employees Would Prefer You To Become Independent Contractors

For most independent contractors, you’d create an LLC. And then you would expense all those things, but it’s also much more difficult to get any of the ancillary benefits when you’re completely on your own. Like, it’s very hard to find health, vision, dental, you can’t find disability, you can’t get life insurance obviously, and you must also pay for your own things. The reason why, I mean, this is just the honest reason why most employers would pay as an independent contractor versus an employer or an employee is they don’t have to pay employment tax.

Employment tax is usually somewhere between 8% to 12%. So, they’re saving 12% on what your compensation is each year. They’re essentially treating you as an employee. They tell you where to go, how much you’re working, who to see, and so you’re a quasi-employee, and the employer is just trying not to pay employment tax.

The IRS lists a 20-factor test on kind of an analysis of if someone is an employee or an independent contractor. So, maybe look at that and say, alright, look, you’re not giving me or any of the benefits of being an employee, but you require me to do all the things that an employee would normally do. 

When Does Being an Independent Contractor More Beneficial?

Being an independent contractor will make sense if it’s more of like a side gig. So, maybe you’re just doing moonlighting work for somebody. And it’s up to you how often you’re working. That would make sense to be an independent contractor. But if this is like a full-time job where you’re going in five days a week, and you’re interacting with the vet tech, the front office, and all the patients and all that kind of thing, it’s unlikely that you’re an actual independent contractor and it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Overall, most of the time, it would make the most sense to be an employee, so you’d get a W2. It wouldn’t make sense to get a 1099 and be an independent contractor, for it’s for a full-time job. Opinions on that may vary, but I just find overall, most of the time, if an employer is offering an independent contractor position, they’re not actually an independent contractor.

Other Blogs Of Interest

• Veterinary Independent Contractor Agreements
• Veterinarian Independent Contractor Tax Deductions
• Pros and Cons of Employment at a Corporate Veterinary Office

Veterinarian Independent Contractor Tax Deductions

What tax deductions can veterinary associates make if they are classified as independent contractors? First, if you are an employee of a veterinary practice, you’ll receive W2 at the end of the year. And taxes will be withheld from your regularly scheduled paychecks. If you’re an independent contractor, you’ll receive a 1099 at the end of the year. No taxes will be withheld from your compensation. You will be responsible for paying all those taxes to the state. What benefits do independent contractors get? Well, it makes the most sense to be an independent contractor working part-time for an employer or a care center owner. For instance, maybe you’re in an emergency veterinary care business, and you’re only going to work maybe one or two weekends a month.

Income Deduction for Practice Expenses

In that situation, being an employee doesn’t really make sense. It makes more sense to be independent contractors. As an employee, you will have ancillary benefits coverage in your contract. The veterinary practice should pay for your licensing, DEA registration, continuing education reimbursement, signing bonus, and moving expenses if you’re moving from out of state. And then they’re also going to offer health, vision, dental, disability, and life retirement. The employer will cover all those things. Whereas for independent contractors, none of those things will be covered. These veterinarians are responsible for paying for all of that themselves.  Now, does that mean they are at a disadvantage compensation-wise? Well, no, if you do the, I guess, correct things, and the correct things would be independent contractors need to create an LLC.

You need to meet with an accountant to kind of go over the best way to maximize your tax deductions. You need to get an EIN from the IRS, create a bank account, and run all the compensation expenses through that bank account so you can track them appropriately. Those are the things independent contractors need to do to ensure they’re setting themselves up to take the tax deductions when they’re ultimately filing taxes at the end of the year. 

What are those things you can do? Alright, well, all the things I just discussed can be used as tax deductions: 

• Your license
• DEA
• CE
• Any business expenses
• Your home office
• Travel
• Malpractice insurance policy
• Licensing Board
• Defense Insurance

You could depreciate other assets if you have them for the business. All those things can be used as tax deductions when people decide to be independent contractors.

Benefits and Others Not Covered 

Now, a couple of considerations: for 1099 independent contractors, the employer will not have to pay any employment tax on them. So, they usually save around 10 to 12% of their total compensation, which they don’t state upfront. They also do not have to spend any money on the benefits, which can sometimes be costly. If you work as an independent contractor for somebody, you should expect to make a little bit more because the employer is saving on all of those things. If you’re making the exact same amount as some people who work as an employee for a practice, you’re missing out. You should have at least some leverage and point out to them all the things they’re saving on for you to increase. Now, how much? It depends.

I mean, probably somewhere between 5% to 15% of a bump over some people who work as employees would make financial sense for the employer. But whether they’re willing to do that or not, I can’t tell you, but everything is in negotiation. If given an agreement, those are certain things independent contractors can push for because the employer is saving when classifying them as such. I know I mentioned this, but I’m just going to drive it home. 

Veterinarians should meet with an accountant before signing any independent contractor agreement. You need to have the business structures and resources set up properly in advance and know exactly what you can and can’t deduct at the end of the year, which you should run through the bank account. It makes no sense just to sign an agreement and start without having any of those things in place. You could miss out on detecting a lot of valuable business expenses. Email us if you need help with these things. 

Can a Non Compete be Enforced on a 1099 Employee?

Can a non-compete be enforced against a 1099 independent contractor? If you are a 1099, that means you are an independent contractor. Taxes will not be taken out of whatever your payment is. And then at the end of the year, you’ll get a 1099, and you’re responsible for all the taxes associated with any of your compensation throughout the year. Let’s just start at that basic level. If you are an employee, you’ll get a W-2, and you are not an independent contractor. In any employment agreement and most independent contractor agreements for professionals who are in sales or maybe at the executive level, and certainly in healthcare, there will be non-compete.

What Does Non-Compete Do in Work Agreements?

Now, what does a non-compete do? It essentially prohibits the professional from doing what they do for a certain amount of time within a specific geographic region. Are non-competes enforceable in every single state? No, there are a few states where they’re completely unenforceable. However, in most states, they are enforceable if they kind of meet that state’s requirements. Most states do not have specific laws about non-competes, it’s kind of through case law from people suing, and then the court’s making decisions. But the courts will look at the following factors to determine if the non-compete is reasonable and enforceable. 

First, does the non-compete protect the employer’s legitimate business interests? Does it cause undue hardship for the employee/contractor? It doesn’t harm the public and has a reasonable time or geographic scope associated with it.

Can You Enforce Non-competition Agreements?

Let’s talk about what to expect in the actual independent contractor agreement. First, can a non-compete be enforced in a 1099 independent contractor agreement? Yes, they can, unless it’s in a state where, as I said before, it’s completely unenforceable. In most non-compete, it’s going to state that the professional can’t do their specific profession for usually somewhere between a one-to-two-year time. And then the geographic scope really can be dramatically different based upon the industry that the professional is in. For healthcare, somewhere between 5 to 15 miles is normal. For some sales positions, it can be the entire state or several Counties from where they are called upon with the sales targets. It really is industry specific. 

Top Tip: Make Independent Contractor Agreement Specific

Some things you must keep in mind: one, you want to make sure that the specific profession listed is very narrowly tailored. Let’s just say you’re a software salesperson. You don’t want it to say you can’t do sales for two years within this County. You wanted to say you can’t do the very specific software banking sales. That way, you’re not completely kept from doing sales. You just can’t do sales for a competitor.

That’s kind of an important part of this. If an employer is stating you can’t do sales at all and they’re a bank, it doesn’t make sense if you’re doing cleaning supply sales that they would prohibit you from doing that. That’s the first thing you need to think about, narrowly tailored the scope of what you can’t do. And then, as far as time goes, anywhere between one to two years would normally be enforceable. If you have a five-year, 10-year non-compete, that’s ridiculous!

Very unlikely that that would be enforced. And then, as far as geographic scope, you want that narrowly tailored as well. Some things to think about: you always want it to be from your primary location. If you’re in healthcare, certainly your primary practice location. If you’re in sales, you want to keep that as tight as possible and maybe just one County, or if you’re throughout the state, it’s tougher, but still, you want to open as much area as possible. Multi-State non-competes generally are not enforced. However, if you’re in sales and you’re in Cincinnati, and you’re on the border of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, well, they may say somewhere around there. And so, like that, it would likely be enforced as well.

Summary: Non-Compete Could Be Enforceable to Independent Contractors

So, are non-competes enforceable in 1099? Yes, if they are reasonable in scope. It’s tough. I mean, non-competes can be a huge part of any contract negotiation. Now, for some people, it doesn’t matter at all. If I have a physician moving into a city just for that job, they have no ties to the area, and they say, you know what, if this job doesn’t work out, I’m moving anyway. I don’t care about the non-compete at all.

Whereas someone who is established in the city may have kids in school or family close by, being able to stay in the area and continue to do the profession might be the absolute, most important thing. So, suppose an employer/independent contractor customer is completely unwilling to make any changes to the non-compete. In that case, that can be a deal-breaker for some people. Unfortunately, the non-compete can be enforced in an independent contractor agreement but must be narrowly tailored.

I would have someone look it over. An attorney looks it over to give you their opinion on whether it’s enforceable and never go into a contract signing something, just saying, well, it’s too broad. It won’t be enforced if need be. Yes, that might be true, but you might have to litigate it or go to arbitration. I would never suggest that someone sign a contract just thinking, ah, well, it won’t be enforced. I don’t have to worry about it. That’s a bad idea, in my opinion.

Veterinary Contract: How is Veterinarian Production Calculated?

The ProSal method is used in the veterinary industry, which takes a percentage of the collection. So, whatever the practice received that is specific to the veterinarian’s personally performed services, the vet will get a percentage of that. Many are just on straight-based salary, so there is no productivity necessary or at least they don’t get paid more for seeing more patients. Let’s just take a net-collections percentage and talk about that. As I said before, if you’re on a productivity-based compensation model, there are two ways of doing it, at least as far as most vets go.

Veterinarians Calculate Production Based on Pure net-collections

One would just be pure net-collections, meaning, you only get a percentage of what the practice receives from your services. And almost all those agreements will have a fee schedule. These are the things that you can bill for. And then these are the other things that will not count towards yours. Maybe like any food that’s bought from one of your patients would just go to the practice and not be attributed to you or maybe ongoing prescriptions after the first one.

You need to look into that, obviously, that varies based upon the specialty, but they’re usually very specific about the services that count towards the collections of the vet. If you’re on pure net-collections and you’ll get a percentage of what comes in, and then that’s what you get paid. Usually, it’s monthly. They would just do an inventory of what the practice received that month. Then the percentage would be taken. And then that’s what the vet would get. 

Veterinarian Production Based on Draw

Another way of doing it would be they would have draw. Let’s just say they made 120,000 a year, so it’s 10,000 a month, they would say any of the net-collections received above 10,000 a month after you reached your salary threshold, then you would get, I mean for vets, 18 percent is kind of a standard amount. Then you get 18 percent of any of the collections received monthly above 10,000 a month. Or maybe they would do it quarterly. Then you’d get the 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, and then they would take any amounts received over the 30,000, and then you’d get 18 percent of what those net-collections are. 

In that model, usually, if you have a negative balance, meaning, you didn’t bring in 10,000 per month, that negative balance would be carried forward. And if you’re only generating 10,000 a month, you’re getting paid 10,000 a month, something is very wrong as far as the practice goes. Normally, somewhere between like 35 to 40 percent of the revenues generated by a provider would go to the provider. The rest contributes to overhead. That’s kind of the normal productivity model. Veterinarians don’t generally use just encounters or RVUs. It’s just usually a straight net-collections base. Now, a couple of things you need to think about if you’re injured handing an offer would be, especially in the vet industry lately, just a lack of staffing. 

Do They Have Enough Staff?

So, do they have an appropriate amount of vet techs to assist the vet in providing quick and efficient care? I know many vets who must do everything. They have to room the patients; they have to do the initial assessments and everything that a vet tech normally would do. Do they have to do that daily and care for the animal. And that makes the vet less efficient. You need to make sure that they are staffed appropriately and that they are efficient. That way, it doesn’t affect you if you are on one of these productivity-based models. 

If you’re entertaining a new job and the employer is not explicit about what they’re going to do to ensure they’re appropriately staffed. Or is wishy-washy as far as, oh yes, we’ve had problems. Still, you need hard data to determine if a job is worth taking or not. And if an employer is unwilling to give you any of that, you need to move on. You need to find a better opportunity. I don’t know if sneaky is the right word for places that are secretive about their numbers, staffing, or anything like that. That is a huge red flag. And that would be someplace that you’d most likely want to avoid. 

From a Lawyer to a Veterinarian

I think the vet industry is probably simpler than some of the others because it’s usually just a straight base net collection, pure net-collections, or a hybrid of that. And I mean, in my opinion, it is easy to understand, but you need to make certain that the negative balance part is usually the biggest concern for most vets. 

You need to make certain how much you’re at risk of a negative balance carrying forward. And especially, this is the most important thing in this blog, if you’re joining a practice and your net-collections from the very beginning and they’re carrying forward negative balances and again, if you make 120,000 a year, if you’re just establishing a patient base, it will take your time to get up to speed. And whatever that threshold is, you may carry a negative balance forward, and you might be in the hole, tens of thousands of dollars in the first couple of months. 

You want to make certain that there’s like a guaranteed base draw that won’t be held against you for those first few months while you’re building up a practice. Usually, it takes 12 to 18 months for practice to reach maturity. Now, if you’re coming in and replacing a vet, that’s just left. Well, obviously, you have an established base. Therefore, it’ll kind of get you up to speed quicker, but if you’re just building from scratch and you’re on pure net-collections, it’s going to be lean in the first few months.

How is a Veterinarian Given a Draw in a Contract?

What is a draw in a veterinary associate employment contract? A draw is related to compensation. It means how much money a veterinarian will make each month. Let’s talk about the different compensation models and when a draw would come into play. Usually, the veterinarian would have a guaranteed base for at least the first year or two of their contract. It’s very unlikely that you would come into a new employment opportunity and have straight productivity. In the veterinary arena, compensation is almost always calculated through net-collections. Net collections are any money the practice receives determined for the vet’s personally performed services.

Whatever they collect, that’s what would be considered in calculating net-collections for that vet. And one common way of doing it is to say you have a one-year guarantee, and they do that because it takes time to build up a veterinary practice. Now, I guess it depends upon what specialty you’re in, but for the most part, let’s say you’re a general vet. You’re not just going to hop into new practice and have an immediate client base. It takes a while to build up. So, they’ll give you a guaranteed base in year one. Then after year one, they’ll probably switch you to productivity/net collections model. And that’s when a draw would come into play. The veterinary industry utilizes the ProSal method commonly. And it’s a methodology for a veterinary practice to pay their employees, which allows them at least a small profit margin.

ProSal Method

And in that method, they will take an estimated projection of what your net-collections would be, based on different factors and conditions or information from past years. The vet would then receive a smaller percentage of that per month. And then there would be a reconciliation or true up at the end of the year. Let’s go through some examples. Let’s say the veterinarian makes 120,000 per year in their first guaranteed base year. And then they collected that amount as well.

While under ProSal, they would maybe knock it back to 80 percent. You would make 10,000 in that scenario per month. And so, they would say, alright, what will knock it back to 80 percent? And then the vet will get a draw of $8,000 per month. Throughout the year, they’ll make 8,000 per month. And then, at the end of the year, they will take whatever the total net-collections were for that vet versus what was paid out.

In that scenario, 8,000 times 12 minus 6,000. And then if there is a difference, meaning, if they collected more, they would then get a percentage of those net-collections. The downside is if you are in a negative balance, meaning, if you collected less than they paid out, they would generally make you pay that back over time. And what they’ll normally do is they’ll take however much you’re in the deficit for. Let’s say it’s $6,000. Over the subsequent three pay periods, they might take 2000 out of your paycheck until you’re back to zero. Is that fair? It just depends. No one wants to employ employees who don’t cover their salary and expenses. If the vet is entirely unproductive, they can expect a termination letter.

Veterinary Contract Production Compensation

Now, if there are some underlying reasons why a vet is not as productive, this is big in the vet industry right now due to lack of staffing. If you can’t get the vet techs, if you can’t get the front office staff if they can’t have any efficient workflow, and the vet is doing all the things that they didn’t have to do before, that will slow them down, and their collections are going to decrease. Just a side note: you need to make sure there’s language in your employment agreement that states the veterinary practice will provide you with proper support to make your practice efficient. 

Back to the draw, it could change over time. Let’s say you had a 120 base, then you moved into a kind of a decreased percentage per month as your draw, and then you collected 160,000. Well, they would probably bump up your draw to 120,000 and then do another reconciliation at the end of a year. There are many different ways to calculate compensation in a veterinary associate contract, but that’s probably the most common way to productivity. I also find that many vets are just paid a straight base for years one to five. And that makes it simple, to be honest.

Pros and Cons of Employment at a Corporate Veterinary Office

What are the pros and cons of a veterinarian working in more of a corporate clinic setting? First, are you working as an employee or 1099 independent contractor? When working for a corporation, there are a lot of pros. Starting with the benefits typically offered, such as health insurance, retirement, disability, life insurance, sometimes travel, and cell phones. The list just goes on from there. More benefits will be offered to you in a more corporate clinic. Also, the facilities are typically more standardized. If there’s more than one location that you’re going to be providing services at, typically, they’re standard between the locations. And then also support staff. Usually, you’re fully staffed with the people you need and the equipment within the facilities.

Salary Talks, Corporate Practice or Solo?

So, this is great. You’ve got benefits, the facilities are great. Sometimes the pay can be more in a corporate setting. I would say often. You are typically compensated more. Those are just kind of the pros, depending on what you’re looking for. Suppose you’re looking for benefits (which will be provided with any W2 position). In that case, if you’re looking for things that are more standardized policies, also with admin, then that’s considered a pro for a corporate clinic. 

Some cons you want to think about are you’re normally not able to negotiate quite as much in an employment contract. When starting your employment with them, it’s typically offered the same sort of agreement for all the other similarly situated veterinarians. Also, you want to think about your compensation. That is one thing that you can sometimes negotiate in a corporate clinic. 

Other Important Cons

Some other cons and probably the biggest one. Well, I would say there are probably two. One, there are usually a lot of expectations for how many clients you will see in their animals per day. There are quotas, there are maximums, and there are minimum expectations that you must meet. And if you’re not meeting those, there are consequences to those. That’s something that you want to consider if that’s something that you feel up to. I would say another con is usually the non-compete clauses. They are extensive. There will probably be multiple locations, large miles from each location that you will be restricted to. Also, be careful if you are working as an independent contractor that the agreement does not contain a non-compete clause.

And then, usually, for an extended period, the biggest con of a corporate clinic is those non-compete clauses. Because those can come back to bite you. Going back to the pros, I would say another pro would probably be just marketing and advertising. They’re marketing and advertising on your behalf. They’re bringing in tons of clients and their pets, so there’s no worry that you will have that client base there. It’s easy to build up because you have them supporting you in this setting. 

Veterinary Clinic Contract and Benefits

How should you negotiate a veterinary associate contract? There are many things to consider when you want to negotiate your contract or an employment agreement. The first thing you want to understand is how much leverage do you have and what I mean by leverage. I mean, are you just out of your schooling? Do you have any experience? Are you specialized? If you’re specialized and very few are in the veterinary industry, you have more leverage. But you might have a little less leverage if you’re just out of school for general veterinary practice. And then also, if you’ve been practicing and you have a substantial client base, and you have lots of years of experience, you may have more leverage in relation to that.

Once you understand your leverage, you need to understand what you should be asking for. The first thing I always see our clients want to negotiate is their base salary. Base salary or base compensation is the flat you’ll get every month upon continuing your employment. The problem is that veterinarians are normally compensated, not just through base compensation. You’re also normally compensated through collections. That’s the typical sort of layout of compensation for really any type of veterinarian. Even if you’re specialized, it’s normally base compensation, and then there’s a part of collections. 

Base Compensation is Not Everything

So yes, the base compensation is important, but there are many other aspects to an employment agreement. Your percentage of collections can be huge. You want to fight probably for a larger percentage of collections over just a base salary because the base salary will never change unless you renegotiate in the future. But suppose you have a substantial client base, and you know you will bring those clients in. In that case, you will want a higher percentage of your collections which you can make well over your base salary. It’s something to consider. I know the base salary is a significant number on an employment agreement. Still, you also want to consider the collection percentage. Because you can make a lot more money with a higher collection percentage if you know you will bring in those clients.

Clinical Office Work Pros and Cons

Now, if you are right out of school and you do not have an established client base, and maybe you’re not replacing someone at a veterinary practice or clinic, they’re just expanding. It will take a while to build up that client base. Then you, in that situation, might want to fight for a higher base compensation or salary for a year or two so that you can establish, as I said, that nice client base. Other things that can be more detrimental to you than even the compensation are those restrictive covenants. And what I mean by restrictive covenants are non-compete clauses and non-solicitation clauses, specifically the non-compete. Right now, the veterinary industry is booming, and practices that are bringing on and employing veterinarians are protecting their interests.

Look Out For The Non Competes

And so, sometimes, these non-competes can be unreasonable and attach to many locations or just many miles from one practice. So, you want to consider that because if you are establishing a client base, you’re working hard, you’re bringing in clients, and then you decide to leave the practice, or they decide to terminate their employment with you, you could have a serious problem. You might not be able to practice in the area. You could even have to up and move your family. Non-compete clauses are extremely important that you want to negotiate in your initial employment agreement. And often, it’s overlooked because it’s something way in the future. And you’re excited about this prospective future employer, or you’re right out of school and want to start earning money.

That’s what you’re focused on, but non-competes are those sneaky clauses in employment agreements that can hurt you in the future. I would say more than anything. A non-compete agreement is something that you should always negotiate. They’re normally a mileage from specific locations that you can negotiate. And then also, for a specific period, they can be anywhere from six months to three years. And I would always try to negotiate that amount of time down and then always the miles down. When you’re negotiating how many miles, you also need to consider, can you find work outside of that restricted area without having to up and move? And then you also want to know what’s restricted. Sometimes the non-compete clauses specifically for veterinarians may just say that the practice of veterinary medicine is very general. I will negotiate that it’s only within your specialty if you’re specialized.

Business Non-Compete

So, non-compete clauses want to negotiate those, most important. Non-solicitation clauses just mean you can’t solicit clients or employees coming with you. And sometimes that period can be negotiated down to six months or a year before you can reach out directly to those clients or to those employees. Then you have your sort of ancillary benefits. In your continuing education, typically you’re given an allowance every year, which is anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 typically within a veterinary practice. You can negotiate that money because if you don’t, then you must pay for your continuing education to keep your license. So, that’s something I would negotiate as well. And then also any sort of dues, fees, licensing, all those costs really add up.

And we don’t think about that when we’re just looking at the base salary and how much money you’re going to make, but these sorts of costs can be negotiated at the beginning. It’s really going to save you a lot of money in the end, and a lot of headaches as well. 

Breaking a Corporate Clinic Contract

Can a veterinarian break an employment contract? I think the most important matter is defining what break means. Do you mean, can I terminate the contract, meaning get out of it if I’ve already signed it and have started? Yes, that’s one way to think of breaking the contract. In my mind, breaking a contract usually means you’ve signed the agreement but haven’t started yet. But we’ll kind of look at both of those. Let’s talk about the first one first. Can you break a contract? In any employment agreement, there’s going to be language about how to terminate the agreement. And there are generally four ways to terminate an agreement.

You can do it if the term expires, then there’s no automatic renewal, so let’s say you have a two-year contract, get through the two years, neither party has renegotiated an extension, the contract ends, it’s terminated. Next, by mutual agreement. If either party is like, you know what? This isn’t working out. Let’s move on. The contract can end. The third would be for cause termination.

If one party is in breach of contract and doesn’t fix the breach, then they will have the option of terminating the contract immediately. And then the last way would be without cause termination. And that just means either party can terminate the agreement at any time, for any reason, with a certain amount of notice to the other party. In the veterinary industry, somewhere between 30 to 90 days is kind of a standard amount for without cause termination. Just because you’re utilizing one of those four ways of terminating a contract doesn’t necessarily mean you’re breaking it.