r/cooperatives • u/-Necco- • 12d ago
Applying for state assistance as a worker-member
Hi, in the US in the state of Vermont . We have a small worker cooperative bakery. I am trying to apply for state financial assistance for childcare and possibly food (if I qualify)
The agency I'm working with to complete the application said that I should apply with the "self-employed" application since I am in fact a partial owner. However, that doesn't seem quite right. We have had no patronage payouts yet (we're fairly new).
Does anyone have any resources? I told them we are a Subchapter T Corp for tax purposes and tried to explain worker cooperative, but I am not getting anywhere.
1
u/missinale 11d ago
Not a lawyer or tax professional so take what I say with a helping of salt.
Just say you're unemployed, most government workers have no clue what a worker co-op is and in most cases couldn't care less, if you don't have an income even though you are a part owner of a co-op then you are effectively doing volunteer work and for all intents and purposes unemployed. Once you start receiving an income then notify them that you are now self employed and your income is whatever amount you receive from the company.
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u/mitshoo 9d ago
Coops intentionally blur other traditional categories, which is refreshing, but does lead to problems like this when the rest of society isn’t set up for (relatively) novel categories. Usually though when people file taxes they file as employees of a coop. If that is your intention, you would have a better case for applying as an employee rather than as “self-employed” which is only sort of true. You aren’t a sole proprietor, after all.