If you were going to pick a little extra work on the side

[amyamanda]

And the person offered to pay you under the table, how would you weigh the pros and cons of that?

I am not at all sure of the laws and potential consequences regarding this sort of thing.

I am talking about odd hours helping with someone's small at-home business, or helping them with their personal affairs, that sort of thing.

If you decided it was acceptable to you, and they offered to pay you in cash, check, or Paypal, would you feel more or less comfortable with any of those options? If the person was not geographically close to you, making cash difficult, and you were not geographically close to town, making check-depositing difficult, would you feel comfortable billing them through Paypal? Would you only feel comfortable dealing in cash, even if it caused a delay? What about receiving a personal check?

If you decided it was unacceptable to you to be paid under the table, what would be your reasons, and how would you handle getting paid? What would your options be?

If you absolutely had to make sure you were paid in a timely manner, because you needed every penny, and the person was not willing to get set up with payroll stuff or deal with paying benefits or taxes, what would you do?

I would very much like to hypothetically explore this topic. Not that I am considering this, or anything.

[Scribe]

If this were my hypothetical situation, and it wasn't going to amount to more than $2,000 or so over the course of a year, I'd receive through Paypal and think no more of it.

[Amylcd]

Originally Posted by avengingophelia

If this were my hypothetical situation, and it wasn't going to amount to more than $2,000 or so over the course of a year, I'd receive through Paypal and think no more of it.

I agree.

[bellee]

I'd do it in a heartbeat. I wouldn't take a check if it was someone I didn't know very well though.

[AuntNi]

Paypal sucks, IMO, but it might be your best option. That being said, I have a blind system for Paypal. I immediately transfer the money out of Paypal into a special checking account (I use this account solely for Paypal transactions.) As soon as that clears, I transfer it again into my everyday checking account. Paypal has serious security flaws that they won't address.

As far as working under the table, I have no problem with that, as long as you're never planning on running for office or anything like that. But I'm totally paranoid about the IRS, so be sure to report the income.

[annethcz]

You don't have to be working under the table. The situation you're describing sounds like a classic independent contractor situation. If the employer isn't setting your hours or requiring you to be there at a particular time, it sounds like you're an independent contractor. In that case, should you desire to keep everything on the up and up, you'd just keep track of your business income and expenses and fill out a schedule C when you do your personal income taxes. The downside to being an independent contractor is that you're stuck paying both the employer and employee portion of income taxes.

[wendyland]

I would only work on the side if I got in cash only or in checks that could be cashed without a charge at their bank. I wouldn't want any paper trail.

It's not that hard to do taxes on income earned on the side. You would probably want to keep logs of money coming in. You'd just have to factor in the fact that the government would be taking a third. You can also deduct a lot of expenses if you work for yourself that would help offset the taxes.

[SandyBeachBums]

Can you file a schedule C without a 1099?

[AuntNi]

Originally Posted by SandyBeachBums

Can you file a schedule C without a 1099?

Sure! I always used that for my singing gigs, and I never got 1099s for those.