IF he had a place of business and took a contract to do work which was 250 miles away from his office, he MIGHT be able to claim the mileage.
But I doubt he has a business office, so there is no travel or per diem involved.
Claiming it as Self-Employment income is not much different, as far as taxes go, then if it were paid/reported as wages.
The only difference is that he will need to pay both halves of his FICA Tax (social security) but even then he gets a credit for half that amount.
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