I, Like you MDG, don't necessarily consider myself a sub-contractor of the yards I go to. But if I were on the other side of the scale and had categorize the money I paid out to labor to get, process and ship scrap metal into one of two categories, the first would be employees I have full control of (hours, job description, set pay) and they would get a W-2 at the end of the year. The other category would be the randoms that I use through out the coarse of the year that offer a service my regular employees don't have the time to do, I don't have near the control over them as I do my employees other then to not use their product or service if I don't like it...those folks I would consider sub-contractors and issue them a 1099 at the end of the year.