I am a teacher and I received a 1099-NEC for income from doing professional development. How do I answer the self-employment questions when I am not self-employed?

[easevallius]

The questions are so confusing and are asking me things like what is the description of my business, what work industry it is in, am I actively participated in the work of my business and what is the address of my business. I have no business! I am a teacher, as stated, and I don't work for myself. The income is from Title 1 I believe and is given to teachers for continued professional development. I totally understand that this income needs to be taxed but I am just so confused as how to answer these questions that clearly do not apply to this situation!

[MinhT1]

If you received a form 1099-NEC, then you are self-employed and  yes, you DO have a business.

Income reported in box 1 of form 1099-NEC is self-employed income. You are considered as self-employed and in IRS terms, are operating a business doing what you do to earn the income reported on the form 1099-NEC. You enter your form 1099-NEC in TurboTax and TurboTax will populate a Schedule C after you enter all your information. You can deduct any expenses you paid related to this activity (such as supplies, car expenses, etc.)

Self-employed income is subject to income tax AND self-employment tax (calculated at 15.3% on 92.35% of net self-employed income).

You do not own a business in the common meaning of the word. So in TurboTax answer that you use the cash method, that you do not have an EIN. You use your own name as the business name and your personal address as the business address.

You’ll need to use TurboTax Deluxe (or TurboTax Self-Employed if you have expenses to deduct), or TurboTax Home and Business.

You can read this TurboTax article for more information.

[easevallius]

Thank you for your guidance as how to answer some of the questions! I really appreciate it. And what you said does make sense but it is still incredibly confusing. We do the professional development on school grounds during school hours and are mandated to do this. Because of this, there are no expenses to deduct. I am just struggling to wrap my head around the concept since teaching is my only job so I don't view myself as being self-employed. But (please bear with me because I feel like this sounds crazy) would I take it as me employing myself to learn professionally? Like I said, just trying to find an explanation that makes sense in my head.