Is it legal for employer to pay the expenses to employee by personal check?

My friend's with some company A. The company provides training to their employees and then send them to work with its client companies as a contractor. On training the company A does pay anything to my friend and there is no contract signed between him and company. My friend just gets the expenses paid of upto $200.00 per month and his company(company A) pays him these expenses by personal check. Is it legal to get his expenses paid by his company with personal check. Also I would like to mention that my friend is on student visa.

Additional Details
I would like to mention that student visa allows a student to work part related to his/her field of study when the school is in session and full time when the school is not in session. But the only thing that my friend wants to know is that he is not getting any pay but get $200.00 dollars per month for his travel expenses and all and this $200 is paid to him by his employer is in form of personal check without deducting any taxes. So, does that amount is taxable? if his employer is not deducting any taxes can he himself pay his taxes even if the employer doesn't provide him W2

chuckles951

First, what does he care as long as the check is good.

As for being a student, it is obvious he is working as an unpaid intern, which is perfectly legal. And it is fair to reimburse personal expenses to an intern related to the job. No deductions are required for reimbursing expenses as the money is not earned income. It is likely that the company does not have a system in place for this and themoney is coming from petty cash.

Also note that students on an F1 visa, where the work is in any way relevant to their field of study, are allowed to work 20 hours a week when the school is in session and full time when the school is not in session. As well they are allowed to work for one year after they graduate in order to get the experience needed to make their education relevant.
This last part also gives the graduate enough time to get an H-1B visa or to at least get the labor certification part of their greeen card application completed.

And if they go back to their home country, they year of work may make them more sympathetic to US interests in the future.

michr

at face value this looks illegal but.................
without knowing what kind of training, what expenses, how many hours for training, the gross revenues of the employer, type of business etcetera there is no way to determine if this is legal or not. labor laws are very broadly written and then allow hundreds of different exceptions and exemptions so not every employer or job is covered by all or any of the laws.

1. how some one is paid is of no relevance as long as they are paid and accurate records are kept.

2. being on a student visa makes working legally not possible and your "friend" needs to concentrate on school which is why the Visa was granted or obtain a legal work Visa but....................
legal status of the employee does not exempt the employee form the protections of the labor laws. under federal and state law an employee regardless of status is granted certain protections.

EDIT:
you did not edit to include any of the relevant information that is needed to determine the legality of the training and no pay for it.

the visa issue is not relevant as the law protects the employee regardless of status which was already covered in the answer.

if the person is considered an independent contractor then a W-2 won't be issued but instead a 1099 will be but............ with out edited information there is no way to know if that is what will happen.

jellybeanchick

If a company reimburses you for travel expenses, then you don't have to pay income taxes on it. It counts as a business expense for the company, and is treated the same as if the company prepaid the expenses for you.

mister ed

the pay part no problem the working while a student is wrong and he could get deported!!

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