1099-NEC under personal income

[jtenos]

I'm employed with a regular full-time employer, but did a few months of consulting on my own, part-time, this year. In TurboTax Home&Business, I added my income where it asked me - in the 1099-NEC section, while I was doing the personal income section. The result was that I didn't get a Schedule 2, Schedule C, or Schedule SE - and it didn't account for my self-employment taxes that I needed to pay. It included it as regular income and looks like it only accounted for regular income tax.

After I realized this, I re-did the 1099-NEC in the business section - there was a place for 1099-NEC income there, so I added that and removed what I did earlier from the personal section. Now the return shows the self-employment taxes and all the expected schedules (and a small tax liability instead of a healthy refund).

This is the first time I've done any self-employment, so I just want to make sure I did the right thing. Is there a scenario where 1099-NEC wouldn't be subject to self-employment tax? The consulting was just myself, not through a corp or LLC or anything.

I appreciate any insight - want to make sure I don't severely underpay or overpay.

Thanks

[PattiF · Accepted solution]

Your description of the income that you received as a consultant would require that you file a Schedule C and pay self-employment taxes. Include any consulting expenses that you had such as supplies, phone, mileage or other items.

There is a scenario where the 1099-NEC would not be considered self-employment. That would be for a public official.

Internal Revenue Code section 3401(c) indicates that an “officer, employee, or elected official” of government is an employee for income tax withholding purposes. However, in some special cases the law or a Section 218 Agreement may specify otherwise.

[jtenos]

Interesting - thanks for the insight.