I was doing my CSS as my parents don’t understand it, and I thought I entered my $4k made as non taxed income, but the CSS requires a W2 from me. Does that mean I listed it as taxed? I’m so confused and lost, what do I do?
I’m also a questbridge finalist so all materials are due on the 1st of November. Please help!
What is the source of your non-taxed income?
I don’t understand much either but I’ll try to do my best to explain. The U.S. fed tax return is the paper with the number 1040 on the upper left hand corner. This form basically records your income and income that you use or get from gov or alimony. There is also a fed tax return for students but you don’t have to fill it out if your income(if you have one) meets a certain requirement. W-2 form for both you and your parents shows the employee that’s paying you. 1099 form is the form that your parents would have to fill out if their income is earned not from their employee, but places like if they own a business and stuff
If you are still confused, call the IDOC or CSS or ask your conselor or college and career center.
Doing some work for a family friend and helping them out at their restaurant. Not an employee
I’m not a tax expert, but if you make over $400 in independent contracting income (which sounds like you did), you have to file a tax return even if the company didn’t give you a 1099 (so technically your $4K shouldn’t be untaxed.) Obviously you wouldn’t get a W2 from a company unless you were an employee.
@kelsmom @politeperson @belknappoint @twoin18 Do you have advice for OP?
I read that minors only have to report income if it over $10k. Maybe I was wrong?
I’m not sure if it’s 1099 income (I think you have to file because you still have to pay self-employment taxes.) And it doesn’t matter if the company didn’t give you a 1099, you are still supposed to report the income. Look at the link I provided you in my post (click on ‘file a tax return’ in the post above), hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in.
See this link also https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/family/at-what-income-does-a-minor-have-to-file-an-income-tax-return/L6HOdGp6i
yikes it’s not looking good. IDOC has an option to just submit an end of year pay stub instead of W2 or 1099, I’m thinking of going ahead with that. Thoughts?
The limits are different for W-2 (employee) income than for 1099 (self employment) income. If you earn over $400 in self-employment income you should file a tax return and pay social security taxes (at a rate of ~15%).
But it sounds like this is for a previous year and you didn’t file taxes back then, so it’s all a bit late in the day. And your employer presumably didn’t file anything either else they would have given you a 1099 (actually you probably should have been a W-2 employee if “helping” in a restaurant). I’m not sure how you can realistically undo this in the next week without creating bigger problems.
EDIT: do you have a paystub? That would generally mean you are a W-2 employee?
Many teenagers receive (small amounts of) cash under the table for jobs like babysitting, dog walking etc. Few bother to file a tax return to report it. And in that case they generally wouldn’t be including it on a CSS profile either.
I talked to some other advisors and they told me to ask the employer for a pay stub, which I thought would be possible. I’m very lost, I was repeatedly told to be as “truthful” as possible by everyone and it’s now coming back to bite me. Parents and employer aren’t a big help which is what led to this, both don’t understand this whole fin aid process.
It’s going to be impossible for an employer to recreate a proper paystub unless they actually had you on their payroll at the time. If all they give you is a letter saying “I paid you $4000 last year” then that’s not great for anyone, since it essentially confirms they’ve been evading taxes.
Perhaps a good compromise for OP would be to report whatever savings they have that would presumably include some portion of that $4K and show $0 in nontaxable income related to that $4K. Putting something in that field on the CSS is what is causing the issue.
Yeah the issue is that I already submitted my CSS profile and I have to submit documents for the IDOC. I don’t see any option outside reporting it as income where then I wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it and submitting a pay stub. The other options are W2, 1099, or governmental agency forms. Past questbridge matches have informed me though that mistakes in the CSS aren’t a big deal especially for questbridge students, so should I list this as a “mistake” and tell CSS to put my income like that?
I would call the FA department of one of the schools on your list and ask to speak with a staff member who can give you the best guidance. Good luck to you in the match.
If you were paid $4k by a family friend for doing work at a restaurant, you have taxable income even if the family friend/“employer” reported nothing to the tax authorities. You are obligated to file a tax return, report the income and pay your share of the tax owed. There is no rule or law that minors only have to report income if it is over $10k. Generally speaking, in a situation like yours the reporting obligation starts at around $400 of income, when self-employment tax (both the employee and employer share of FICA) will be owed. If your income for the year, both earned and unearned, is limited to the $4k, the standard deduction for a dependent will likely mean that you don’t owe any regular income tax (just the self-employment tax). This all applies to federal tax law. The tax laws of your state of legal residence (and the state where the work was done, if different than your state of legal residence) will dictate whether or not a state tax return must be filed and any tax owed (not likely, but again it’s state dependent).
Check the section on dependents, you don’t have to file unless you made under $13k in earned wages
This doesn’t make any sense. It implies that a dependent with more than $13k in earned income doesn’t have to file, which is absolutely not the case. And the real issue here is an obligation to file to report and pay self-employment tax on income that had not been reported by the family friend/“employer” and on which FICA was not withheld.
From the document you posted, please see Table 3 #3, which is the reason you should have filed a tax return (assuming for 2023?)
Whether or not you choose to file/pay taxes is really not your issue right now (noting you do NOT need a w-2 or 1099 or paystub to claim income and file taxes.)
You need to speak with your colleges’ FA departments to see what they want you to do in terms of fulfilling their IDOC requirements for the $4K in non-taxable income you claimed on CSS profile.
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.
