ION, I have a question for business/tax/law types. I think I already know the answer, but google is giving me no confirmation, probably because this is a weird-ass situation:

My employer tends to play fast and loose with their accounting, and, in fact, get audited by the IRS at least every other year as a result of that.

We have a huge book project that, given our regular workload and meagre staff, could not get done during regular business hours. Instead, Big!Boss asked a couple of us if we could edit/proofread/layout the book "on a freelance basis."

A person can't freelance for a company they're already a salaried employee of, correct?

This "freelance" work is compensated by turning in a form with hours worked, which is then paid out at an amount equal to what our hourly rate would be if we were hourly, with NO taxes, SS, etc., withheld.

So, if one of these salaried employees performs some of this "freelance" work, would they (and I mean *me*) report the income as a bonus, come April 15? Because I can't think of any other way to report it that would be remotely legal.

I know I have to report it, and pay taxes on it (ouch), which I intend to do, because I'm all honest and shit, but I'm just trying to figure out HOW to categorize the income when I file my taxes.

So, report it as a bonus? Or is there a more appropriate category?

And yes, my employer does shifty financial stuff like this All. The. Time.

flourishing as perhaps the only brain-damaged detective going.

Pfft. The writer is clearly unaware of the whole Defective Detective genre.

Happy Birthday, Trudy!

Happy Birthday, Kara!

It's not that it's too high impact for me to undergo- it's finding someone to do it. Trigger point injections, for instance, are relatively simple and can be performed by a pain specialist or an internist. Problem is, those people don't traditionally staff ERs (though CCDH sometimes has an internist in theirs). So we have a simple, incredibly effective and low side effect treatment I don't get in emergency situations.

So something involving only one of the available anaesthiologists at the biggest hospital in the area? Not gonna happen. I'd take it, but it would have to be scheduled somehow.

And, fuck, when they scheduled my admission to Neuro they still had me lying around waiting because I'm only high priority to me-they had trauma and stroke etc victims pouring in.

That scale is awesome.

And I have the voodoo toothpick holder AIFG!

t eta Ha! That's a fun site - bacon wallet!

Steph, how does your employer categorize the income? Do they include it on your W-2? Give you a 1099?

So, report it as a bonus? Or is there a more appropriate category?

What form is your employer going to give you for the income? 1099?

Steph, how does your employer categorize the income? Do they include it on your W-2? Give you a 1099?

They don't include it on my W-2, and they don't give me a 1099. My W-2 just has my standard 80-hour-a-week salary info.

I *said* it was financially shifty.

Um. I would guess that reporting it as a bonus would be simpler for you, tax-wise. (Simpler in terms of paperwork, not taxable amount. I have no idea about that). If you report it as self-employment income, you'll have to calculate the tax on it and fill out a Schedule SE.

I'm just not sure how you report it as a bonus.

If you report it as self-employment income, you'll have to calculate the tax on it and fill out a Schedule SE.

But can I report self-employment income from the same employer for whom I'm a full-time salaried employee? That doesn't seem possible. Don't you have to be one or the other, in terms of who pays you?

And Steph--they paged both my GP and my specialist--not sure how long it took my GP to get back to them, but it was more than an hour for the specialist. My hope is that the specialist (who's remarkably unavailable--1/2 a day of clinic per week) talks to the GP who's a little more findable, and the GP can speak with authority and in a timely manner, whether prompted by me or ER staff.

Means I'll have to go the hospitals I really don't want to, but there's a limit to how much I can like a hospital where I get either really good or totally inadequate care and there's no way to find out which beforehand (I tried calling--they were hip to my tricks).