Am I contract? and what are the taxes?

Texas.
I am currently a full time employee in all aspects, but my employer says that I am hired as contract and must pay my own taxes, this sounds wrong to me, I have worked there since march and am worried that I may end up owing lots of money that I do not have to the irs. are there any laws that can help me here? another question is this: I will soon be a "full time employee" where my employer will withhold taxes, how much is that usually?
thanks.

since you are a 1099 employee for now, you will owe at least
FICA/Medicare: 15.3% of gross income
Federal Taxes: 0 to 35% depending on income
State Income Tax: 0% for Texas

Since this is your first year doing 1099 work, you will probably not incur any penalties, but if you were to continue being 1099 across multiple years, you would need to pay the IRS quarterly to avoid penalties.

Some Random Guy said:

since you are a 1099 employee for now, you will owe at least
FICA/Medicare: 15.3% of gross income
Federal Taxes: 0 to 35% depending on income
State Income Tax: 0% for Texas

Since this is your first year doing 1099 work, you will probably not incur any penalties, but if you were to continue being 1099 across multiple years, you would need to pay the IRS quarterly to avoid penalties.

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When your employer starts withholding taxes the medicare portion will drop to 7.685% as your employer will be required to pay half of those taxes. Otherwise the tax consequences will remain the same.

What your employer is doing is wrong, and both you and the government are being cheated by your employer. However, lots of employers do that, and until employees start refusing to work for employers that do that, its going to continue.

so what is a good overall amount to withhold myself for now?
and is there anything that I can do to help my situation? my hours are now cut back and I only work one or two days a week, so I do not with hold taxes because I can not afford to and make so little as it is. I make $10 an hour before I take out taxes.

vtavera said:

so what is a good overall amount to withhold myself for now?
and is there anything that I can do to help my situation? my hours are now cut back and I only work one or two days a week, so I do not with hold taxes because I can not afford to and make so little as it is. I make $10 an hour before I take out taxes.

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At 10.00 an hour if you are not married, then probably about 28% total would be enough. If you have dependent children, you could cut it down to about 15%. If you are married, go see a local tax pro with both you and your spouse's info in hand. You will get a better estimate that way.

However, seriously consider finding another job. With the one you have now, there is no workman's comp if you are injured, no unemployment if you are fired or laid off, no benefits if you are working full time, and you are paying 7.685% of tax that your employer should be paying.

I'm single and have no children, a tax pro I spoke to already told me that I only needed to with hold about 15%, which I've done all these months. I also do not see myself getting injured working on a computer, so I'm not so worried about workman's comp. The thing about where I work is that things are just getting really going and I have a few large raises coming in the next few months, as well as health insurance and benefits and full time hours where the taxes will be taken out by my employer, so I don't think I should find another job, at least not right now.

vtavera said:

I'm single and have no children, a tax pro I spoke to already told me that I only needed to with hold about 15%, which I've done all these months. I also do not see myself getting injured working on a computer, so I'm not so worried about workman's comp. The thing about where I work is that things are just getting really going and I have a few large raises coming in the next few months, as well as health insurance and benefits and full time hours where the taxes will be taken out by my employer, so I don't think I should find another job, at least not right now.

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15% is only ok if you will earn less than about 8600 for the year, because 15% is not quite enough to cover your self employment taxes., let alone any income tax.

I will earn more than 8600 this year. I started at $8 an hour and just went to $10 a hour in July. I was asked to work from home and when my computer went out, I replaced it, a $1400 deduction according to a tax pro. that plus the $25 a month for my bus pass to get to work, I have receipts for all that, and that should about cover my taxes if not more according to the same tax pro.

vtavera said:

I will earn more than 8600 this year. I started at $8 an hour and just went to $10 a hour in July. I was asked to work from home and when my computer went out, I replaced it, a $1400 deduction according to a tax pro. that plus the $25 a month for my bus pass to get to work, I have receipts for all that, and that should about cover my taxes if not more according to the same tax pro.

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If you have a tax pro, then why are you asking questions here? I will tell you honestly that I do not think that your tax pro is giving you good advice, or that you are not understanding the tax pro's advice.

Commuting expenses are not tax deductible, therefore your bus pass is not deductible. The computer is deductible as a Section 179 expense, and you may have some other expenses for supplies (paper, ink, etc.) however that is simply going to reduce your income, it won't make the self employment taxes go away on the remaining income (15%) and if that remaining income is over about 8600.00 there is going to be at least 10%-15% federal income tax due on the amount over 8600.00.

I ask questions here because I don't get to talk to her often. I will try to talk to her or someone else soon.