Do I HAVE to submit the SS-8 form to the IRS?

My husband received $774 for what we believed to be independent contractor work. We didn't receive a W-2 or a 1099-MISC from the company. We reported the income under the "Miscellaneous Income" Category. When we did so, TurboTax instructed us to submit an SS-8 form. We have researched the SS-8 form and understand its purpose. However, we frankly do not care to investigate whether he should have been classified as an "independent contractor" vs. "employee". We don't believe it will affect our tax return either way, and it honestly does not matter to us. Do we HAVE to submit the SS-8 form???

DianeW
Expert Alumni

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

You don't have to submit the SS-8,however the way it was entered into TurboTax does express that it should have been paid as an employee and reported on a W2.  Therefore you are only paying tax at the employee level for social security and medicare taxes which would not be correct.  In this scenario the IRS will be looking for an employer to pay the other share of those taxes.

You may want to reconsider the way you report it and if there are no expenses you can continue to use the TurboTax account and version you are using now.

To record the income as an independent contractor without a Form 1099-MISC use the steps below.

TurboTax online version:

1. Sign into your account and select your current return.

2. Select  My Account on the top right and then select Tools

3. Select Topic Search (see attached image)

4. Search for business and select Go

5. Select Edit next to your business

6. Update the income, then proceed to other areas as needed.

TurboTax desktop version:

1. Search box in the upper right

2. Search for business, schedule c

3. Jump to business. schedule c

4. Continue to Edit your business

5. Update the income and any other section of the business return.