If I'm a student and work as an independent contractor do I need to pay taxes (earned less that $8000)

[DawnC · Accepted solution]

Yes, if you are self-employed and have more than $400 in earnings, you are required to file a return.   And because the income is on a 1099, and not a W-2, you owe self-employment tax.   You won't owe income tax since you earned less than your standard deduction, but you will still owe the self-employment tax.   You will be able to enter business expenses to reduce the amount of tax you owe.  

I need to enter a 1099 - Am I Self-Employed? 

How do I report income from self-employment?

What self-employed expenses can I deduct?  

[VolvoGirl]

Yes!   You have to file it as self employment income for $400 or more and pay self employment tax on it to cover the FICA (SS & Medicare) that wasn’t taken out like on employee paychecks.   

You will pay Self Employment tax (Scheduled SE) on a Net Profit of $400 or more on Schedule C in addition to regular income tax on it.   You pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of your Net Profit (If it is greater than $400).  The 15.3% self employed SE Tax is to pay both the employer part and employee part of Social Security and Medicare.  So you get social security credit for it when you retire.  

You can enter Self Employment Income into Online Deluxe but if you have any expenses you will have to upgrade to the Premium version.  Or use any of the Desktop installed programs.  All the Desktop programs have the same forms.  You just get more help and guidance in the higher versions.

How to enter income from Self Employment

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