Hello- Last year I was laid off and had a W-2 for around $6000, and then a religious friend of mine with a 501c3 tried hiring me for office help and after 2 months there was not enough fundraising to keep paying my salary so he gave me a 1099-misc. I was not able to collect unemployment from this job because of the non-profit status, but I was on the first job, so I have a 1099-G from that of around $8000, and later I got a part time job and got a W-2 for that for around $3200. So my total income last year was around $22,000 only. I put in my taxes to efile in two places and was going to get $800 back until I put in the $5000 I earned on the 1099-misc. Then I went to owing $600 federal. I see there is a self-employment tax of around $700 besides my normal taxes on this. It seems unfair, knowing I sound naive, but is there any loophole here? I know I could insist on a W-2 but don't want to do that to my friend. I keep being forced to do a schedule C and try to pick the category of work "Religious and other civic organizations" and I don't know if this is right. There is also an undefined category. I was wondering if I could use the fact that I made so little last year or the fact that it is a nonprofit 501c3 to get some kind of break on the self-employment tax. I wasn't running a business. Everything was supplied to me and I had work hours. I could maybe count gas to and from work but that would be a really shaky and possibly unprovable/illegal estimate. I did have a cellphone bill that I used for work a lot during that time, but it was also my personal cell. The price did go up because of work. Please advise if there is anything I can do. I tried itemizing deductions too but they were lower than standard deduction. I am 29 and single. I don't really have the money to pay a tax professional if I am going to owe money. If I could get rid of the self-employment tax it may be worth it. Thanks.