Disclaimer: I am not an accountant or tax adviser. This information should not be considered tax advice. I have no qualifications for knowing anything about taxes, and you should look into all of this on your own. All I have done is put together some info that's available on the IRS website that I was curious about. All information is about the US. First, the single best resource is Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center on the IRS website. Now, some frequently seen questions: Question - Do I have to pay taxes on money from Mturk? Answer - Most people do. Just because you don't get a form or instructions on how to do this doesn't mean you're not responsible. And believe me, being in debt to the IRS is not fun. The IRS has an online interview to help you determine if you need to file, and if you file, you're supposed to report all of your income. Quick tip: if you make more than $400 profit in self-employment income, you are supposed to file. Question - How do I claim the money I make on Mturk? Answer - it's either miscellaneous income (if you can be considered an employee) or self-employment income (if you are considered an independent contractor). Miscellaneous income gets reported on line 7 of the 1040, and includes all other income you earn as wages. Self-employment income has to be reported on a Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ and you'll also need to complete Schedule SE, Self-Employment Tax, when you file. Question - Am I an employee or self-employed? Answer - I have no idea. The IRS says this is a pretty complicated issue and depends on things like who has control over when you work (generally on Mturk, the worker does) and who has control over how you work (generally on Mturk, the requester does), and a bunch of other factors. You don't have to "own a business" to be considered self-employed. Also, it's pretty clear from Amazon's Conditions of Use that they intend for workers to be considered independent contractors: in Paragraph 3.b they state: "As a Provider you are performing Services for a Requester in your personal capacity as an independent contractor and not as an employee of the Requester." However it's far from obvious to me, after doing some serious reading on the subject. More info Who is Self Employed? (IRS link) Independent contractor or Employee? (IRS publication 1779) 1099-MISC, Independent Contractors, and Self-Employed If you want, you can fill out form SS-8 and have the IRS determine your worker status. I filled one out yesterday and I plan to go along with whatever they say, just to be safe. Question - If I'm an independent contractor, do I have to make estimated payments throughout the year? Answer - Usually, you are supposed to. If you are filing as a sole proprietor, partner, S corporation shareholder, and/or a self-employed individual, you generally have to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when you file your return. If you have a regular job where taxes are withheld, you may be able to adjust your withholding instead of paying estimated taxes. If you had no tax liability for the prior tax year, you are not required to pay estimated taxes (if you were a US citizen or resident for the whole year, and your prior tax year was a 12-month period), but notice that "zero tax liability" is not the same as "didn't owe taxes when you filed." For more info, read the IRS' article on Estimated Taxes Question - What about those "$600 per requester" or "$20,000/year" threshholds? Answer - The $600 was something that requesters had to deal with - if they paid a single worker more than $600, they had to file a paper, and you got a copy of it. The $20,000 per year was something Amazon Payments had to worry about - if they pay out more than that to you, they have to file a paper and you get a copy of it. However, none of this actually affects whether or not you have to pay taxes on the money. Do I really have to do all this paperwork? Lots of people haven't reported side income and they never got in trouble... Answer - It depends on how risk-averse you are. Seriously, look into this on the IRS website. You're supposed to report money you earn, but if your income is low enough, you might be "under the radar" at least for a while. However, be careful.The IRS has ways of making it hurt if you don't abide by their rules. They might not catch you for a while... but then again, they might.
What are you using as your source? I just noticed that my Hit Database Pending Overview is listing a couple of hits as pending that I have already been paid for. One is a $3 survey I did in June.
I'm just using the normal View more and it shows 1 from her on 7/13. But based on the recent TO I seen that the workers won't get paid until the full 30 days.
I think it would be very hard to make a successful argument that we are employed by Amazon. Not only does Amazon not assign us any work, it doesn't give us any requirements for how much work we do or how often we work. Even after we accept a hit there's no meaningful penalty for not doing it. It just expires. The only thing that's a problem is doing the work wrong. ETA: Just my thoughts for purposes of casual conversation. Not legal advice or tax advice or any kind of expert opinion.
Also, check your Amazon payments page. Lots of times my payments show up there before they show up on my dashboard.
Looks like turkexperiment.com is going to come out with a new hit (or at least one I haven't seen). I just got the qual for it (auto-granted) but the hit poofed. (It's clicking on noses beeteedubs).
Yeah, I agree with you. Amazon's TOS makes that point pretty solidly too. Still, I thought I remembered somebody posting something about a possible reclassification of CrowdFlower's workforce as employees... anyway, it's enough for me to put the question to the IRS. Of course I'll let you all know if I ever hear back from them.
Actually, if I knew ten years ago what I know now about taxes and the IRS, I could have saved myself tens of thousands of dollars. It would have been worth a few hours of work.