Hi all,

I am not sure what to do.I dont know if i qualify as "self employed" since i take surveys and do tasks on a website called amazon mechanical turk.I live in utah and wanted to know what the tax threshold is, tax rate and if i owe taxes?what form would i fill out?

thanks,
Jamye

#1:Unless you receive a W2 from your ER, you are a self employed; in most cases, you would know whether you are an EE or a self-employed. The contract you have signed with the other party may indicate the type of relationship between you and the payer.Generally, there is an employer-employee relationship if you have entered into a contract of service under which you work under the control of someone (your ER).On the other hand, for a self-employed, there is a business relationship if you have entered into a contract for service. As a self-employed with your own business, you work for yourself and you are in the position to realise a business profit or loss. Your income is derived from the buying and selling of goods, or from providing professional or personal services. For example, a self-employed may be a sole-proprietor or a partner in a partnership.

#2:As a self employer, as long as the amount on Sch C of 1040 line 29/ 31 is $400 or exceeds $400, you must file form Sch C and also as long as the amount on Sch SE line 2/ 3 is also $400 or exceeds $400 then you must pay self employment tax, however, you can deduct 50% of your SECA tax on 1040 line 27. If you are filing as a sole proprietor and/or a self-employed individual, you generally have to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe tax of $1K or more when you file your return.BUT You do not have to pay estimated tax for the current year if you had no tax liability for the prior year;you were a U.S. citizen or resident for the whole year;your prior tax year covered a 12 month period. Estimated tax is the method used to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes and income tax, because you do not have an employer withholding these taxes for you. Form 1040-ES, is used to figure these taxes. Form 1040-ES contains a worksheet that is similar to Form 1040. You will need your prior year’s annual tax return in order to fill out Form 1040-ES.You need to use the worksheet found in Form 1040-ES to find out if you are required to file quarterly estimated tax. To file your annual tax return, you will need to use Sch C or Sch C-EZ to report your income or loss from a business you operated or a profession you practiced as a sole proprietor. Small businesses and statutory employees with expenses of $5K or less may be able to file Sch C-EZ instead of Sch C. The State of Utah requires that you file Utah Form TC-546 for any estimated tax payments required. If you do not make the required tax payments by the original return due date a penalty may be assessed. The required payment must equal the lesser of 90 percent of your current year tax liability or 100 percent of your previous year tax liability, before credits. A payment may be in the form of withholding, previous year's refund applied to current year, credit carryovers, or prepayments made on or before the return due date.

I guess you can contact the Utah State Tax commission for more self employment tax info. in Utah in detail
Utah State Tax Commission - Contact Us
http://www.easyestimatedtaxes.com/im.../UT_tc-546.pdf