Philadelphia, PA asked in Employment Law for Ohio

Q: Can someone file a 1099 on me without any information because I work for cash for him and that was not our agreement

I work for someone for cash we had a falling out he decided he was going to send me a 1099 form can he legally do that

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1 Lawyer Answer
Neil Klingshirn
Neil Klingshirn
Answered
  • Independence, OH
  • Licensed in Ohio

A: Your employer has an obligation to report your income to the IRS. You cannot agree with your employer to keep secret the money you earn.

If you are an independent contractor, your employer should report your income to the IRS on a 1099. If you are an employee, your employer should report your income on a W-2.

The issue that usually comes up is that you are an employee (not an independent contractor) but the employer reports to the IRS that you are an independent contractor and submits a 1099. In that case you end up a paying self-employment tax of about 6.5%. If you are in fact an employee, your employer would pay that tax. Therefore, when employers misclassify employees as independent contractors, the employee pays a tax that the employer should have paid, equal to 6.5% of their pay.

Assuming you were an employee, which is based on the facts and not what the employer says, then the solution is to report to the IRS that you were an employee, not an independent contractor. The IRS should investigate and, if the facts show that you were an employee, the IRS will collect the tax from the employer, not you.

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