What is the minimum wage to file Schedule C and form a company?

[AmitN]

I am working as a part time consultant. Earn $15,000.00  Do I need to submit Schedule C and or form a company?

[VolvoGirl]

You don't need to form a company.  You do need to file it as self employment on schedule C and pay self employment tax on $400 or more net profit.

You will need to keep good records.  You may get a 1099Misc at the end of the year if someone pays you more than $600 but you need to report all your income no matter how small.  You might want to use Quicken or QuickBooks to keep track of your income and expenses.

There is also QuickBooks Self Employment bundle you can check out which includes one Turbo Tax Online Self Employed  return....

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/self-employed

When you are self employed you are in business for yourself and the person or company that pays you is your customer or client.

To report your self employment income you will fill out schedule C in your personal 1040 tax return and pay SE self employment Tax.  You will need to use the Online Self Employed version or any Desktop program but the Desktop Home & Business version will have the most help.

Here is some IRS reading material……

IRS information on Self Employment

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center

Pulication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf

Publication 535 Business Expenses

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf

[VolvoGirl]

Oh, that was assuming they pay you as a independent contractor on a 1099Misc or 1099NEC and not as a W2 employee with taxes taken out.

 Self employment tax info......

Self Employment tax (Scheduled SE) is automatically generated if a person has $400 or more of net profit from self-employment.  You pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of your Net Profit greater than $400.  The 15.3% self employed SE Tax is to pay both the employer part and employee part of Social Security and Medicare.  So you get social security credit for it when you retire.  

[Opus 17]

If you file a tax return for other reasons, you must include a schedule C if you have any amount of self-employment income.   If self-employment is your only income, you must file the schedule C if your net profit after expenses is more than $400.

You do not need to form any particular business structure, like a corporation or LLC.  There may be advantages to doing that but that is legal advice we are not equipped to give.  You may be required to register as a business by your state laws, but that does not change your federal tax situation if you do or don't register.

One other note: you can use your personal SSN for self-employment as long as you don't pay any employees.  Once you have employees, you must get a federal EIN (employer ID number).  You may want to do this now in any case -- if you have an EIN, you give that number to your clients and customers instead of giving them your personal SSN.  You can get an EIN online in a few minutes.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-n...