Expert: Shirley McAllister, CPP, PHR - 2/6/2011

Question
Q1: Shirley, If a student is a full time student at a University in USA and working part time limited hours at a company (10 or 15 or 18) in a week in USA. Students can only work 20 hours per week off campus. They hardly meet the 20 hour zone due to holidays/tests/assignments. They are a registered intern. Hours for the most part are given by the student based on his/her classes. If a student has a test or other commitments - usually do not show up and the total work hours vary between 5 to 20 hours in a month. Can a company issue a 1099 or is it a W2. If you have a student on W2, the payroll company already deducts the unemployment benefit taxes. will company pay for unemployment benefit to students because the lack of unemployment is due to school commitment.

Answer
Unemployment is paid on all W-2 wages. It is not paid on 1099 wages as those individuals are considered self employed. Most generally an intern is a part time employee and Futa and Suta must be paid on those wages.

If that person were to draw unemployment they would only draw for the portion of time they worked so the amount would be a much smaller amount than that of a full time employee.

They would also have to prove to the department of labor that they were able to work at a job in order to get the unemployment payment.

Shirley