How do I report this on my federal income tax (USA)?

Question

I'm going to receive 3 small checks ($100 ea.) from 3 different small businesses. None of these are my actual employer. How do I report this income for federal tax purposes? Can I just add $300 to the misc. income section on my 1040? Or do I need to fill out an entirely different form for each one (that seems crazy!)?

Answer 1

If you provided some sort of service to those companies you would report that income on a Schedule C with the resulting net going on line 12 of your form 1040.

Answer 2

it depends: if you consider the services you provided to those businesses as your business you can use Sch C where you can also put some of your expenses (if any) related to your small business. if those activities are not your business you can show those checks as a misc income on your 1040.

Answer 3

Do you mean three different small businesses that you run, or FROM 3 different customers of your one side business?  If it's one side business of yours with three different customers, you'll file one schedule C (or very possibly C-EZ) adding the three checks together.

Answer 4

I assume these payments are for services you performed.

If so, these payments may be considered wages, even though the businesses are not your regular employer.  You would receive W-2 documents and record the amounts as wages.

If the payments are as an independent contractor, and they are for basically the same business activity which you engage in for profit, then the amounts are recorded on Schedule C.  Different business activities would require separate Schedules C.

If the payments are not for payment for services in your trade or business, they could be recorded as "other income" on Line 21 of Form 1040.