A sad state of affairs . . .

[socalblue1]

[QUOTE=PeteBooth;610811]

Yes but being an independent contractor I also can write off expenses which i could not do if I were an employee.

Pete Booth

Pete, not totally correct. You can write off anything required for your job & not paid by the employer. The small number of exceptions is more than offset by not having to paying matching social security taxes.

[bob jenkins]

[QUOTE=socalblue1;610814]

Originally Posted by PeteBooth

Pete, not totally correct. You can write off anything required for your job & not paid by the employer. The small number of exceptions is more than offset by not having to paying matching social security taxes.

The "matching social security taxes" are still being paid, just not directly by the employee. I'd gladly pay my employees an extra 8% (rounded, ...) and have them pay the government so I didn't have to do the paperwork. IOW, treat it just like Federal and State Income Tax withholdings.

And, there's 7 or 8 "tests" to help determine whether a person is an employee or a contractor. How they get paid is only one of the tests. (And, it's not a "bright line" that you evaluate each test and if you meet 5 of the 8 you're an employee, for example.)

[Tim C]

"Used to be in Eugene, OR, the associations charged the schools for training officials, assigning games, and cutting the checks to pay the officials. What a racket."

I defend your right to have an opinion.

That being said:

Most associations in Oregon are assigned by an individual Commissioner.

The individual commissioners establish their fees by local group.

In PDX our commissioner is paid 10% of each game check. The same commissioner currently assigns both the high school season and the summer season. He also happens to assign non-D1 colloege games in the Northwest (he has retired from that gig).

In PDX we also have an elected position of Treasurer. This is a paid position and is funded by charging schools a check writing fee. The schools love that as across Oregon IF school districts wrote checks for officials they would write 250,000 per year.

In PDX for a baseball season we have about $500,000 pass through our group.

The Commissioner gets input from umpires aboput the quailty of new (young guys) that he wants to move up the chain. He is the sole evaluator of our umpires at the varsity level.

We are paid about every two weeks and are receive a 1099 in January each tear.

[Reffing Rev.]

So I'm guessing by some of the previous posts that not very many of you pay SE taxes on your "independant contractor" income. Your game fees are reduced already, and if money is the only reason you are officiating, please retire.

[tballump]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

So I'm guessing by some of the previous posts that not very many of you pay SE taxes on your "independant contractor" income.

Are they suppose to?

[DonInKansas]

Originally Posted by tballump

Are they suppose to?

Uh....yeah. It's income. It's like any self-owned business.

I forgot to state Uncle Sam gets his cut of my game checks as well.

[tballump]

Originally Posted by DonInKansas

Uh....yeah. It's income. It's like any self-owned business.

I forgot to state Uncle Sam gets his cut of my game checks as well.

Can this 15.3% be written off or reduced in any way or is it just Federal, State, and Local that can be written off or reduced by expenses.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by tballump

Can this 15.3% be written off or reduced in any way or is it just Federal, State, and Local that can be written off or reduced by expenses.

You only pay self-employment taxes above a threshold - net income over $400. All deductible expenses are removed before you calculate the SE tax.