Side Income? You’re in the Right Place.
Did you have a side job in 2020? Are you considering one for 2021? If so, you’ll learn a ton in a very short time by reading our guide to Moonlighting and Self-Employment Income.
Many physicians, particularly trainees, often look for side jobs or moonlighting opportunities to help with student loans and low trainee salaries. If you simply take extra shifts with your employer, that income will be added to your pay, taxes withheld, and eventually reported on a W2
But if you do some extra work for an unrelated employer (regardless of the type of job) you may find yourself working not as an employee, but rather as an “independent contractor”. This means you are essentially self-employed, and thus responsible for self-employment taxes and possibly estimated quarterly tax payments on that extra income. Don’t be caught off guard and become a victim of Tax Shock. It takes much more than fluid boluses to recover from this type of shock!