Professionals - self employed - CSS Profile

<p>Okay, if you're a consultant, or lawyer, or real estate person who is paid on a 1099 basis, do you consider yourself as "owning a business" for the purposes of the CSS Profile?? I am self employed, and file a schedule C, but I have no business assets, etc.</p>

<p>My 2 cents - and CSS “help desk” clarified this for me.</p>

<p>I am NOT self employed, techically - but many situations ask that I say I am. I have a corporation, but it’s a S corp. I pay myself a salary, withhold taxes, and issue a W-2. I am NOT self employed. I do NOT file a schedule C. I get a schedule K, from my business income/loss.</p>

<p>You ARE self employed. You are paid through 1099s. You do not have to have “property” to have a business. I myself don’t even pay business property taxes. My office is inside another corporation, everything I pay is just an “expense”. The only assets I have are my checking account. So…YOU are your business. Your business is a service. Business is used in a generic sense. It can be any TYPE of business from corporation to partnership, LLC etc. This is how I understand it. Someone on CC just the other day said they checked “self employed”. When they tried to “submit” they got an error message that they needed to fill in their “business” if they were self employed. </p>

<p>YOu have a law business/practice, or a consulting practice, or a real estate service. </p>

<p>I’ll bump so you can get someone to agree/verify or correct my opinion…cuz that’s all it is!</p>

<p>I agree, if you receive a 1099 that accounts for all of your income (no W-2 or schedule K from a corp) then I would consider you self-employed and not a business owner.</p>

<p>The answer to OP’s question is Yes. Self-employed people are business owners. They own whatever business it is that they do. For FA purposes, they need to put down that they own at least that 1 business and answer the questions about it.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input. That’s what I thought, but I didn’t rmember what we had done in the past.</p>

<p>Yes, you are self-employed. I list my business assets as whatever I use-- computer, phone, etc. But at least one poster (I believe Calmom) had a very different experience with a school that greatly increased the ‘value’ of her one-man-band business so be aware that different colleges may look at it differently.</p>

<p>My business has absolutely no assets - none. Even the computer I use is used at least 75% of the time for personal use. I think that anybody who is self-employed or runs a small business is suspected of concealing income, so they maybe extrapolate a rosier financial picture from that.</p>

<p>I must have been misunderstood, I think you are BOTH:</p>

<p>1). Self Employed AND, by definition that makes you 2.) a business owner. </p>

<p>Like a square is a rectangle but not all rectangles are squares.</p>

<p>A business owner need not be self employed but all self employed are business owners.</p>

<p>As for the assets…I have an S corporation and no assets (like I said, except cash…). I don’t think that looks funny for you at all. Rosy? Whose business is rosy these days anyway!? Luck.</p>

<p>Also, NEMom2, your most valuable assets are (1) what is known as “goodwill,” which are your professional relationships and reputation in the community, and (2) the know-how, skills and experience to do whatever it is that you do. Note, (2) is located entirely between your ears, and (1) is located between the ears of other people. Luckily CSS has not yet tried to call those assets that go into its EFC formula. (oops)</p>

<p>Hahahaha! I wish they DID base our EFC on the biz assets between our ears! (Not my d’s mind you, just mine). I’d have an EFC of zero for SURE!</p>

<p>My dad is scientist has a full time job, and also he is a consultant for a company and receives 1099 form. Do I need to report him as self imployed</p>

<p>I have a similar questions to sherryjia – if I started the year self-employed getting paid via 1099, and switched to a regular full time job mid-year (my contractor business ended in August), am I self-employed and a business owner for the purposes of the CSS and FAFSA? (I will show self-employment/business income for 2012)</p>

<p>Yes, to both.</p>

<p>And please let sleeping threads lie . . . :)</p>

<p>2010 thread…</p>