Originally Posted by bj2757

Do you have past experience with this? I got my first 1099-NEC today for $775 for the gift cards I redeemed for last year. Entering the form on TurboTax opened a few cans of worms. The first was what kind of employee was I. Instead of the default there was one choice that said the income was from what I considered a hobby or something I did occasionally (but was warned that response would get more scrutiny - even though I feel that's the right category). If I took the default a Schedule C was opened, I had to name my business, etc etc etc - had to pay self employment tax ($120) and the full 15% SS (I did see part of that was refunded on the form). But then I caught that I now had $755 in "earned income" - something I haven't had since 2006 :-) That immediately made me wonder about putting that money in my traditional IRA which it said I could do - and that cut the increase in my taxes from $240 to about $50. When I went back and checked the "hobby" block my $240 in increased tax dropped to about $120 (eliminated the self employment tax and SS I assume) - BUT it didn't classify the $775 as "earned income" but instead listed it as "additional income." So no IRA option...

Anyway I was hoping you or some of the other smart folks here might have been down this road before and could offer some advice :-)