Subrecipient vs. contractor determination must be made and documented at the proposal stage using the Checklist for Determination of Subrecipient or Contractor. 

• University must use subrecipient’s negotiated F&A rate or provide a 10% MTDC “deminimis” rate (or another negotiated rate with the subrecipient).
• Fixed amount subawards require written prior approval from the federal agency.

Definitions:

• Contractor – Contractor means an entity that receives a contract.  A contract is a legal instrument by which a non-federal entity purchases property or services needed to carry out the project or program under a federal award. (Uniform Guidance § 200.22, § 200.23)
• Subaward – Subaward means an award provided by a pass-through entity to a subrecipient for the subrecipient to carry out part of a federal award received by the pass-through entity.  It does not include payments to a contractor or payments to an individual that is a beneficiary of a federal program.  A subaward may be provided through any form of legal agreement, including an agreement that the pass-through entity considers a contract (Uniform Guidance § 200.92)
• Subrecipient – Subrecipient means a non-federal entity that receives a subaward from a pass-through entity to carry out a part of a federal program; but does not include an individual that is a beneficiary of such program.  A subrecipient may also be a recipient of other federal awards directly from a federal awarding agency (Uniform Guidance § 200.93)