For the sake of future students who may run into this problem: the college only asks for this info to match the info on your FAFSA. Just contact the college financial aid office and they’ll let you know what they need from you and they most definitely don’t expect you to have filed taxes since they know that’s ridiculous coming from that type of job. Only a fool would try to contact IRS for information you could get directly from your college financial aid office since they’re the ones you will be dealing with.
Getting information about financial aid requirements from a college financial aid office makes sense. Getting information about tax rules, regulations and requirements from a college financial aid office is not smart.
The type of job doesn’t matter; what matters is the amount and type of income. Please tell where in the tax code or regulations it says that any income from babysitting or mowing the neighbor’s lawn is not subject to income or self-employment tax, regardless of the amount earned.
If the college doesn’t want it, then don’t make things complicated. Simple as that. I have plenty of friends who don’t file taxes with their jobs. I am a dependent and I don’t have to file taxes. Use your common sense do you really expect a 13 year old to be filing taxes to the IRS for a job that doesn’t even support them? No one does that…
It’s not up to the college to say whether or not you need to file a tax return. Is this not obvious?
Absolutely I expect a 13 year old to be filing a tax return, if required by the tax code and IRS regulations. It makes no difference if a job supports the wage earner or not; that’s not how income and self-employment taxes work in the U.S.
Wrong – lots of young income earners follow the rules and pay what they owe.
I don’t even know why you’re talking about tax returns, this discussion was about W-2 forms. I’m a dependent, duh I don’t file my own tax returns when name is under my parent’s tax returns. And I KNOW I don’t have to file taxes because I have a non-filing verification letter from the IRS that I requested from them for financial aid verification that specifically states I never filed taxes and don’t need to file any. I don’t know where you’re getting this information from, but if the IRS says I don’t need to file taxes I’m pretty sure I don’t need to file taxes.
You are seriously confused.
-Being a dependent (“name is under my parent’s tax return”) does not mean that you are automatically exempt from filing your own tax return.
-A non-filing verification from the IRS does not mean that you were not required to file a tax return; it only signifies that you have not filed a tax return for that particular year, regardless of whether you were supposed to or not.
-Without knowing how much money you may have earned (for instance, if you were paid cash for babysitting or mowing lawns), the IRS has no way of determining whether or not you should have filed a tax return. You need to figure this out based on your total earnings for the tax year and what the current requirements are.
“Please tell where in the tax code or regulations it says that any income from babysitting or mowing the neighbor’s lawn is not subject to income or self-employment tax, regardless of the amount earned.”
Babysitting in the parents’ home or mowing both fall under the heading of household employment. Proper tax return presentation is Line 7 Wages with the notation HSH. No self-employment tax is due. IRC 3121 is a fine place to start.
In the OP’s case, I would have no problem signing a return that reported a teenager’s casual tutoring income as not rising to the level of a trade or business. There’s no SE tax unless there’s a trade or business. What rises to the level of trade or business is a matter of facts and circumstances, but I see Tax Court cases a couple times a year where the taxpayers win with much worse fact patterns.
Earlier in the thread you said that you earned $1,100 for the entire year through tutoring. Based on the facts you present, it sure sounds like you were self-employed. You were told that self-employed net income of $433 or greater generally requires the filing of a tax return to report self-employed income and to pay self-employment tax. It doesn’t matter if you were claimed as a dependent on your parent’s tax return. It doesn’t matter how old you were. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t receive a W-2 or a 1099 form for the work. It doesn’t matter if the IRS provided a verification of non-filing letter. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t use the tutoring income to support yourself. It doesn’t matter if the UCLA financial aid office told you that you don’t need to worry about reporting this income to the IRS. All that matters is what you earned, how you earned it, and what the tax code and the IRS regulations require.
I don’t think it’s self-employment when I was given instructions on what to help the kids with and given the materials and workbooks to do with them from those parents. In IRS’s definitions, this would make me a household employee since I’m not providing my own tools or controlling how my work is done. This is probably why they wanted a W-2 form from me, not a self-employment tax return.
Given the length of section 3121, perhaps you could direct me to the specific paragraphs that support this position. I’m always ready to learn new things!
Generally, you are self-employed if any of the following apply to you.
•You carry on a trade or business as a sole proprietor or an independent contractor.
•You are a member of a partnership that carries on a trade or business.
•You are otherwise in business for yourself (including a part-time business)
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/self-employed-individuals-tax-center
You have a household employee if you hired someone to do household work and that worker is your employee. The worker is your employee if you can control not only what work is done, but how it is done. If the worker is your employee, it does not matter whether the work is full time or part time or that you hired the worker through an agency or from a list provided by an agency or association. It also does not matter whether you pay the worker on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, or by the job.
Household work is work done in or around your home by the following people.
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/hiring-household-employees
If you were the employee of the various families, they should have provided a 1099 or a W2. Not providing one doesn’t mean you don’t have to file taxes. https://www.taxact.com/support/798/2016/what-to-do-if-you-have-not-received-your-w-2
I think you need to get straight with your employers that you are an employee, and expect a W2.
And you have totally confused being a household employee and ‘head of household’. Head of household is a filing status for single parents.Single, married, head of household. I’m a HOH and have no employees, just dependent children.
I never mentioned I was ‘head of household’, the link just explains what is categorized as a household employee.
But yes you’re right, it’s because I didn’t receive the W-2 form that it was requested from the college so I had to figure things out with the office. Thankfully I’m not working anymore but I’m glad I know about it now so I don’t make the same mistake in the future.
@yerniable, my older kids started filing taxes at the age of 9 and 10. They worked in theatre and so had w-2’s and 1099’s. They didn’t always make enough to “pay” taxes but filing usually got them some cash back. I actually can’t think of a year they didn’t file since.
Most kids don’t file for small under-the-table work… a random night of babysitting or mowing a few lawns in summer but certainly any regular gigs should be filed and many do.
If you need to complete paperwork to receive financial aid, I’d complete it as soon as possible. Did the school give you a deadline?
@austinmshauri Sorry for all the confusion, this issue has already been solved a long time ago. I was helping another student who had the same problem as me when the discussion changed into something else.
@yerinable This is a common situation. If you have never received a W2, you don’t need to submit one. Contact your financial aid office. They will waive the requirement and you will then self-report the income. We had this happen last year. Resolved in a couple of minutes.
Rule #1: if in doubt, contact your Financial Aid office.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread.