Statutory employee versus independent contractor versusemployee
A University considers its adjunct professors to be employees,and as employees the University withholds employee taxes onearnings. Full-time professors, unlike the adjunct professors, payinto their own retirement system and not social security.
There is a private letter ruling which states online instructorsshould or could be considered statuary employees. A statuaryemployee is one that gets no taxes withheld other than socialsecurity and still receives a W-2. A statutory employee can thenuse Schedule C to deduct any expenses. The advantage of being astatutory employee is that the employee can then write off anyexpenses directly associated with teaching, including the cost oflaptops, internet service, software and other expenses. In otherwords, a statutory employee would not be limited to the Schedule Alimitation of deducting expenses that only exceed 7.5% of adjustedgross income.
The University does not make this distinction between statutoryemployee versus employee.
Share your thoughts on whether the University is treating itsadjunct professors correctly. Share your thoughts on whether itsadjunct professors (or anyone else that is doing work for thebenefit of an organization on a part time basis) would be betteroff being treated as a statutory employee, employee or independentcontractor.
