Thank you much ThomasM125 for your reply. You are correct that, most likely, I was not classified as an "employee" of the university. They were the conduits to disperse the NIH grant research funds. They don't issue any W2s to any of the researchers that get funding from the NIH grant. They emphasize that it is considered as taxable income and tell the researchers to file taxes. The pay stub shows the amount deposited into the researchers bank account, they don't withhold any money including federal, SS, state, local taxes, etc. Some of the insurance, student fees etc that the university pays that are listed in Box 14 of W2 and also separately identified in the pay stubs each month, and the university indicates that those fringe benefits are taxable also.
I use the "Misc income" item in the Turbo tax questions where I report this grant money. I add the Box 14 fringe benefits amount to the total deposited money in my bank account and report the total amount as Misc income. The question is: if I report this income as Misc Income category, and when Turbo Tax asks me: Do you have another W2, then I should just ignore it, and say no. Is this correct. Please answer this question directly.
I understand that I should keep the W2 for records purposes only.
Again, thank you for your help.
