Job classifications and corp-to-corp — choosing how a worker is engaged

Last updated: July 30, 2026

Summary: Every job you create carries a classification that determines how the worker is engaged, what they sign, which reviews run, and how fast the assignment can go live: W-2 (US employee), Independent Contractor (US), International IC, International Employee (EOR), or Canada Employee (T4). Corp-to-corp (C2C) isn't a separate classification — it's another staffing provider or consultant that employs its own workers, where we pay and contract with that company rather than the individuals. Choosing correctly up front avoids the most common delays.

The five classifications

Classification	Who it's for	What the worker completes	Extra gates before go-live
W-2 (US employee)	US workers employed by Ascen	I-9/E-Verify, W-4, handbook & agreements, benefits	Fastest path — can even auto-approve when the job and client are set up for it
Independent Contractor (US)	US workers operating as a business	IC agreement, KYB, W-9, insurance/COI, banking	Worker-classification review — every IC assignment is reviewed to confirm IC status fits the work before approval
International IC	Contractors outside the US	IC agreement, KYB, W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E, banking	Worker-classification review + payout-country support
International Employee (EOR)	Employees outside the US/Canada	Locally compliant contract, local tax + banking via our in-country partner	In-country onboarding timelines vary by country
Canada Employee (T4)	Employees in Canada	SIN/work eligibility, Canadian employment agreement, TD1, banking	Requires Canada to be enabled for your account; provincial rules apply (e.g. Ontario training)

Where corp-to-corp fits

Corp-to-corp (C2C) is an entity type, not a job classification — a C2C job is created under the Independent Contractor classification. A C2C is another staffing provider or consultant that employs its own workers — often many of them. You create the job as an Independent Contractor job and mark the engagement as corp-to-corp; the difference is that it runs through the company (the C2C), which we pay, rather than through an individual. Your commercial relationship, and ours, is with the C2C entity, not with the individual workers underneath it.

How it works:

We pay the C2C entity, not the workers. The C2C is the workers' employer. It signs the corp-to-corp agreement, receives the payments (by direct bank transfer to the entity's account on the assignment's net terms), and is responsible for paying its own people — including their payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits.
The workers remain the C2C's employees. They don't onboard as Ascen employees or contractors and don't sign our IC agreements or tax forms. For the individual workers, the only step on our side is identity verification.
What we still verify. We run KYB (Know Your Business) on the C2C entity — legal business details, EIN, business bank account, and business verification, set up once — and KYC (identity) checks on the workers. So the company is vetted as a business and the people are identity-verified.
Insurance still applies. The entity carries the coverage required by its agreement (see Insurance requirements for independent contractors — the entity bears its own business risk).

Because the C2C employs the workers underneath it, classification responsibility for those workers sits with the C2C entity — worth making sure your C2C partners understand before they scale up placements.

Why the classification matters for speed

W-2 has the fewest pre-approval gates and is the only classification that can auto-approve.
IC classifications always trigger a worker-classification review — misclassification is the biggest legal risk in staffing, so every IC assignment is confirmed against how the work actually operates. Jobs written with clear, accurate descriptions (200+ characters, real duties) clear this faster.
If you're unsure whether a role can be IC, ask before creating the job — reclassifying after submission restarts reviews. See Am I a W-2 employee or an Independent Contractor? for the tests that apply.

Creating clients, jobs, and assignments — what's required and what can delay going live
Insurance requirements for independent contractors
Which countries does Ascen support (and which are excluded)?