Production Assistant Is an Independent Contractor?

That’s what the Tax Court said to a person who worked on advertisements and television commercials for various production companies. Sometimes he worked in his own name and sometimes in the name of his S corporation; the companies were always hiring him personally because of his skills. Because the production companies expected him to use his own tools and he had discretion on how to get jobs done — all indications that he had a large degree of control over his work — he was an independent contractor. This status entitled him to deduct his business expenses on Schedule C, rather than as employee expenses on Schedule A (subject to a 2%-of-adjusted-gross-income threshold).