Labor laws for Sole Proprietership (contractors, taxes, deal)

[dcssr]

I am in Kansas, looking at hiring two contract programmers as outside contractors. I do not want to treat them as employees.

One is in a different state, the other is in a different country. I am currently a "Sole Proprietorship" LLC. I want to make sure that I do not do anything to violate any laws and want to minimize exposure with personal liabillity and taxes.

My questions are the following.

1.) Can I pay these contract programmers by the hour to do programming for a certain period of time without needing to give them a 1099 or w2. They will control when and where they do the work.

2.) I am asking that they incoporate themselves as a Limited Liability company so as to avoid having to deal with 1099's, w2's, etc. If I contract them out by the hour, do I just pay their L.L.C. company a check for the amount, or do I have to get other information from them such as their E.I.N. Do I have to send them any other forms like 1099's.

3.) Is there any problem paying them by the hour for their work? I thought I read something one time about not being able to pay by the hour as a [FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']sole proprietor.[/font]

4.) Is it corrrect that one of the keys is that I don't provide them the equipment to use for their work.

5.) Is there a site I can go to that has all of this information for reference. I have scanned the I.R.S site without finding the answers to these questions.

Thanks