First off...neither one is likely to be getting a W-2 for their officiating work. A 1099 is far more likely and only if they get more than $600 from any one source. Joe could even still comply with IRS laws by paying the taxes on the income he really received even if it was not properly attributed to him. He may have violated some IRS regulation here but the IRS mostly cares about whether they got the money or not. If he paid, they're not likely to do much to him if they ever found out.

Secondly, someone could be doing this now. However, unless Joe Smith knows John Doe's SSN, this will get flagged pretty quickly when the organization files their 1099's with the IRS when the provided SSN doesn't match the name that is submitted with it. They might get away with it for one year until the taxes are submitted but that's it. Assuming Joe Smith does know John Doe's SSN, John Doe might face a little grief when the IRS comes looking into why he didn't claim income that an organization said they paid him. But once he proves it wasn't him that received the income, he'll be fine.

This all assumes that an official gets at least $600 from one source. Now, I didn't have a single school pay me $600 last year, but I still got a 1099 from refpay since several schools use it to pay.

The requirement to use refpay puts a bit of a crimp in the plan if someone wants to create a fake identity to officiate; but I'm sure it could be worked around by an ambitiously twisted individual.

I'm surprised they didn't go with the fingerprint plan first. It wouldn't eliminate fraud but it would make it much more difficult. Plus there's no need to submit anything about your background. If you've been arrested, it'll come up.

NYC started fingerprinting officials in the 2008-09 school year (it's a requiement for anyone doing regular business with the NYC public schools). A lot of people objected but as my BV assignor said, "You don't have to get fingerprinted but you also don't have to work." Let's just say our officiating ranks took a hit at the start of that season. My only objection was we had to pay the $115 for the process.

Also, a bit tangentially but since it came up, organizations are required to send you a 1099 if you provide over $600 of services, but they're by no means prohibited from sending you a 1099 for less than $600.

The IRS has been pushing for more and more reporting of independent contractor pay for a few years now and leaning on easily identifiable organizations like schools to do so. I got two 1099s this year for less than $600. One school district did it for one game - a 1099 for a single $40 game. I think this will be more and more prevalent in the future.

I think (but am not sure) that the schools report it all to the IRS, but only need send it to you if > $600.

Doesn't matter to me either way -- I report it all whether I get cash, a check for < $600 or a check(s) for > $600.

We get 1099 from our associations. Our associations have a separate form they are supposed to maintain to document the $$$ coming in from the schools, but I forget the form number.

I would once have said "who cares?" to background checks, except that I got burned on a very poor job of background checking on myself. A couple years ago our assigner sent out an email to contact one of the local YMCAs if you wanted to work their leagues and so I did. They did a routine background check and since I have a very common name, someone with the same name who was arrested for a felony in Baltimore (where I've never been in my life) came back and so they flagged me as that person and refused to allow me to ref their games. I had to prove I wasn't that guy. Shockingly, it was very difficult to prove I wasn't that guy. It was a very uncomfortable and irritating reality check. Ultimately I proved I wasn't that guy, but the experience left such a bitter taste in my mouth I wanted nothing to do with them. Turns out, when you leave these things in the hands of amateurs, you can get burned.

Good point. If you're using a fake name, I guess paying taxes properly is pretty low on your list of priorities.

Two years ago, the NCHSAA contracted with a company in Raleigh to begin performing background checks on all officials, employees and other individuals interested in working with the association. The database is run every night so they will discover as soon as possible if any official is convicted of a sex offense or a felony.

Until I saw this thread, I had truly forgotten all about it. I guess one reason is I don't have to do a thing. They handle everything. I think our annual dues went up $10.