I have a full time teaching job at a college as a full employee which is handled traditionally tax wise, W2. I take the Standard Deduction approach on my taxes thus far. However, I also do part time independent online teaching for other schools for which I get no benefits, but I am classified as a Statutory Employee on their W2s. I get from them. While I understand that that allows for those employers to tax this income for Social Security purposes, it does not allow for me to derive and benefits or deductions from these employments.
The IRS pub on this seems to only address 3 or 4 types of employment categories that qualify as Statutory Employees, e.g. truck drivers, certain sales people, etc. They do not seem to incorporate this type of online teaching relationship or other online job categories. The college financial office doesn’t know how to answer my question, so here goes. Should I treat such Statutory Emplyee income using a Schedule C, similar to an independent contractor, or am I locked into the standard 1040 total wages approach? Using the Sch C approach would allow me to open up some benefits, e.g. a SEP IRA, home office deduction, private health insurance deductions, etc. Seems like this Statutory Employees status generates tax revenue but does not provide me any benefits. Thanks for your time.
