HowlRound: Very early in my career, I accepted a summer job with a large producing organization. Happy to be working, I didn’t mind that the compensation totaled less than $100 per week. I assumed it was the cost of “getting my foot in the door” and was still young and idealistic enough to not mind living on beans and rice. Several months later, navigating the world of income tax for the first time, I received a tax form from this organization unlike the W-2’s I had received from my other employers: IRS Form 1099-MISC. Mystified, I turned to tax preparation software and plugged in all of the endless data required.
3 comments:
Ah, yes. The 1099. Unfortunately, many of us are doomed to be offered work as independent contractors, even if the nature of that work should actually fall under a W2 contract. I've been told that it's sometimes possible to negotiate for a W2 position if you're offered a 1099, but that can be tricky for those of us trying to get started in the industry, and the risk of losing that opportunity is sometimes more powerful than the other option. It's important for everyone to make that decision for themselves -- whether they'd work as an independent contractor for a position that should be an employee, because the money or connections might just be worth it. Overall, I think that I will do my best to shoot for W2 contracts, but that'll only work if I'm lucky and agile enough to get the jobs I want, and negotiate well. It's definitely a very important issue for all young theater professionals to be aware of as they prepare to enter the industry.
Part of me almost feels like theatre’s and other Art’s institutions should have their own tax code that helps those in the arts to navigate all things money a little more efficiently. Whenever tax time comes around, I usually have a handful of W-2’s and 1099’s that I have to go through and process into a tax program. Usually the more difficult part of filing tax’s isn’t that I’m trying to figure out how to file the different forms, but actually waiting on receiving the forms from the company’s. More than a couple of times, the address I gave when I was hired is not the address I am even associated with once they get around to sending the forms out in January. Wouldn’t it be nice if you received a special tax form within a month of finishing a contract with a theatre?
Also, I wish this article had addressed the most interesting dichotomy that exists within the technical theatre realm. I have received both a 1099 and a W-2 from the same company before for the same tax year. Why? Because they considered my design work for them as 1099 and my running the board for them as W-2 type work. How sticky is that situation?!
I also think that too many people are “1099’d.”
This past summer, I made sure that anybody brought in for overhire was as an employee, for his or her own protection. I understand that not every company will be able to do that in the future, but whenever possible, it seems to be the responsible and considerate thing to do.
This article mentions that some companies consider box office clerks to be independent contractors? That’s bullshit. They are the public facing employees for the company! If anybody deserves to be an employee, they certainly do.
The question of actors and designers is tough. Do they have the opportunity to make a profit or loss? No, the theatre usually controls their budget. Do they take instruction and direction on how to perform their job? Probably, but more likely they just receive what they want as the end product. I guess it depends on what the company defines as the product. Do they control hours that work can happen? Absolutely, and they have to be there for tech, performances, etc.
It’s a tough question.
Make everyone an employee. It’s expensive to run a business.
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