What stays with you
Direction, work, outcome, tools, and every obligation the service agreement did not list.
Direction of the work
Whether the work is any good
Equipment and systems
Whatever the agreement did not list
YoursThe provider'sCrosses the twoNeither contract
Four matters, and no share: what any one agreement covers differs by agreement. One crosses both, and the handoff is where these arrangements fail. Everything the fee did not buy stayed where it was.
Direction, Which Was Always Yours
Deciding what the person works on never left you, and it is the one thing you can still simply do.
Equipment in Somebody Else's Hands
A laptop bought by you, held by somebody employed by a third company, recovered through a contract with that company.
Systems Access and the Account in Their Name
Access is granted by you and revoked by you, and the leaving date you act on comes from somebody else.
Health and Safety Where They Actually Sit
The legal duty sits with the employer, the room sits in their house, and the work in it is yours.
Data Protection Across the Triangle
Three parties, two contracts and one set of personal data, with the roles rarely written down anywhere.
Intellectual Property, in Two Chains
Ownership has to travel from the person to the provider and from the provider to you, and either link can be missing.
Whether the Work Is Any Good
Judging the work is yours and always was, and nothing in the service agreement does any of it for you.
Permanent Establishment Is Your Problem
Whether your activity in a country is taxable there is assessed against you, not against the provider.