If I teach Part Time as a Adjunct Professor. Is this considered a Business? I did sign a Contract,

[DawnC0 · Accepted solution]

Whether you signed a contract or not doesn't matter.  If your pay is reported on a W-2, you are an employee, employed in the business of teaching, but not self-employed.  

If your pay is reported to you on a 1099-Misc, you are a self-employed professor and a business owner.

[jvprazak]

My wife served as an adjunct professor for a university where she did receive a W2 form for the one class she taught to a home school association. She did not teach at the university, but instead taught for a home school association. She charged a registration fee for each student that took the class, plus she paid rent to use the classroom at the home school association facility. She had to purchase her own textbooks, supplies and equipment (i.e. projector, screen, etc.) in order to teach her class. She did not receive any W2 or 1099 Misc for the income related to the home school association.  She also had to take an overnight trip to the university for a training class, and also took a separate overnight trip to attend training on the home school association's policies and procedures, both of which were required prior to teaching the course. Are any of these costs deductible, as they were not covered by either the university or the home school association (and in fact, she paid rent to the home school association). It seems she was a W2 employee of the university, but she would have been an independent contractor to the home school association.

[TomD8]

@jvprazak --

You stated "she did receive a W2 form for the one class she taught to a home school association."

If the W2 covered her home school association work, then her unreimbursed expenses related to that work are not deductible.

[xmasbaby0]

@jvprazak I am pretty fuzzy on what the difference is between your spouse being paid by the university to teach for a home school association and being paid BY the home school association.   Did she in fact receive payments from both?   Did the university issue a W-2 to her?  Did the home school association pay her more than $600 and issue either a 1099Misc or a 1099NEC?   You are saying she worked as an independent contractor, but also mention that she received a W-2.   Please explain further.   If all of her income was covered on the W-2, then none of her expenses are deductible on a federal tax return, although some might be deductible on a state return depending on your state.

W-2 employees cannot deduct job-related expenses on a federal return.  Job-related expenses were eliminated as a federal deduction for W-2 employees by the tax laws that changed for 2018 and beyond.  Your state tax laws might be different in AL, AR, CA, HI, MN, NY or PA.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/4482873-which-federal-tax-deductions-have-been-suspended-by-tax-re...

If in fact she received payment that came just from the home school association ---income that was not included on her W-2--- then as an independent contractor she can enter self-employment income, pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare, ordinary income tax, and prepare a Schedule C for her business expenses.   

If she has self-employment income then you need to use online Self-Employed or any version of the CD/download software.   Both the W-2 income and the self-employment income can all be entered with those versions.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/form-1099-nec/1099-nec/L5qTsBiSe_US_en_U...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/self-employed/help/how-do-i-report-income-from-self-employment/00/...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/self-employed/help/what-is-the-self-employment-tax/00/25922

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2902389-why-am-i-paying-self-employment-tax

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901340-where-do-i-enter-schedule-c

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3398950-what-self-employed-expenses-can-i-deduct

[Mike9241]

some taxpayers receive both a w-2 - no employee expenses are deductible, and others receive a w-2 and do other work which generates a 1099-NEC (independent contractor - IC). As an IC they are entitled to deduct certain expense related to this work. The issue is separating what may be common expenses. If you are ever audited the IRS would be quite justified in asking you to prove the IC expenses were for IC work and not that as an employee.  

[jvprazak]

Apologies. I probably wasn't clear enough. The university that provides the curriculum did pay her a salary and issued a W2. The students also paid tuition to the university. Separate of that, my wife charged a registration fee to the students who took the class, paid the home school association "rent" to use a classroom to teach the course, and had to purchase all of her supplies on her own (projector, etc.). It is a bit of an odd set-up for sure. The university did not reimburse her for any of those supplies, nor for the rent to use the classroom.

I appreciate the help!!!

[jvprazak]

She had no income from the home school association. Her income was from the students who paid her a $35 each as a registration fee. This was totally separate of the income from the university that paid her a salary as an adjunct professor. The she was responsible for paying rent to the home school association for rental on the room where she taught the class. Each family apparently also pays a registration fee to the home school association, but my wife didn't receive anything from the home school association.

It seems like a bit of an odd arrangement. But we probably spent $1,000 on the supplies she needed for teaching the class, so hoping we can justify recovering some of that since she had some independent income from each student that wasn't part of the university's W2, so I assume she was somewhat of an independent contractor to the students and was putting the student income as miscellaneous income not covered on a W2 or other form.

Thanks!!!