Volunteer Firefighter Income on 1099 MISC

wendy40 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:49:18 GMT

I have completed 3 returns for people who are volunteer firefighters, all reported on 1099 MISC. One put the income in Schedule 1, and therefore no deductions allowed unless they could itemize. The other two put them on schedule C. Why are they treated differently?

Re: Volunteer Firefighter Income on 1099 MISC

KrisD15 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:14:12 GMT

Schedule C is used for Self-Employed taxpayers.

The income is considered as income from a trade or business. Expenses can be claimed and the income is subject to Self-employment tax (FICA).

Schedule 1 is used to report "other income" such as for a hobby. No expenses can be claimed against this income and there is no Self-employment tax.

The TurboTax program asks a set of questions in order to determine if the income is from Self-Employment or not. One of the question asks "what years" this person received this type of income. If you answer multiple years, the program will ASSUME it is self-employment and use Schedule C.

Volunteer Firefighter income is not normally thought of as Self-Employment income. In order to "trick" the program into entering the income on Schedule 1, you would need to select only the tax year as the only year it was received, as well as "not like work".

These are TurboTax questions, not IRS questions. Altering the answer to get the program to report the income properly is not lying to the IRS.

Reporting it on Schedule C is not correct unless the person that is acting as a volunteer firefighter is performing that service with an intent to profit from it. In fact, reporting a loss from the volunteer firefighter service could cause an issue with the IRS, since the IRS only permits a loss from a endeavor that intends to make a profit (and be taxed on that profit) "someday".

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Volunteer Firefighter Income on 1099 MISC

Re: Volunteer Firefighter Income on 1099 MISC