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W-2 or 1099: how teleradiology work is contracted

What changes when remote reading is offered as employment or as independent contracting: who withholds tax, what you pay yourself, and what to settle before you sign.

Last reviewed November 2026.

Two ways the same work is offered

Remote reading is offered either as employment, where your wages are reported on Form W-2, or as independent contracting, where what you are paid is reported on Form 1099-NEC. Each listing on Telerad.jobs shows a contract type. Contract (1099) means independent contracting. The other types describe the schedule or the length of the work, so ask the employer whether the role is employment.

How the IRS decides which one you are

The IRS looks at the facts of the working relationship in three groups: behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship. A written contract is one of those facts. No single fact decides the answer.

If you are an employee

Your employer withholds Social Security tax (6.2 percent) and Medicare tax (1.45 percent) from your pay and pays a matching amount. It also withholds the 0.9 percent Additional Medicare Tax on wages over $200,000, and it reports your wages on Form W-2.

If you are an independent contractor

The practices that pay you generally do not withhold tax. You pay self-employment tax, which is the Social Security and Medicare tax for people who work for themselves. The rate is 15.3 percent (12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare), figured on 92.35 percent of your net earnings. The Social Security part stops at the annual wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026. The 0.9 percent Additional Medicare Tax applies above $200,000 for a single filer, $250,000 on a joint return and $125,000 if you are married and file separately.

You generally make estimated tax payments four times a year with Form 1040-ES if you expect to owe $1,000 or more. A payer reports what it paid you on Form 1099-NEC. For payments made in 2026 the reporting threshold is $2,000; it was $600 through 2025.

What a contractor can deduct or set up

  • Half of your self-employment tax is deductible in figuring adjusted gross income.
  • The self-employed health insurance deduction needs a net profit and a plan established under your business. It is not allowed for any month in which you could have joined an employer-subsidized plan, including a spouse's.
  • The IRS lists three retirement plans for self-employed people: a SEP, a SIMPLE IRA and a one-participant 401(k).

What to settle before you sign

If you think you are classified wrongly

Either you or the firm can ask the IRS to decide your status with Form SS-8. The IRS says a determination can take at least six months.

A note on published pay figures

The federal wage survey behind our radiologist pay pages counts employees. It does not cover the self-employed, so it leaves out 1099 work.

Sources

This guide is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice. Rules and figures change; the sources above are the place to check them.

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