Most of us jumped at our first work at home job with enthusiastic frenzy. Some of us with home-based jobs are classified as independent contractors. Some of us work in our own home business. Some of us are classified as regular employees, the same as our office-based colleagues except that we get to work from the comfort of our own homes. Some of us are still searching for the perfect, legitimate job opportunity.

If you're still shopping job opportunities and have not found the right home-based job yet, it is likely that when you do find it, you may asked to work from your home as an independent contractor. Although there may be many advantages to working at home as an independent contractor instead of an employee, most people don't fully understand what it means and are intimidated by the opportunity. People who are accustomed to their employers deducting huge chunks of their wages to pay taxes for them and then handing them a convenient W2 form at the end of the year find the whole prospect of being an independent contractor very intimidating.

It doesn't have to be the way! The whole purpose of this information is to help you understand the generalities related to the various legal classifications you may face as you search for legitimate work at home jobs. Please consult a competent tax and/or accounting professional to advise you on how the various classifications may affect your individual situation.

People with home-based or telecommuting jobs enjoy being far less supervised and far less controlled than our office-rooted counterparts, for most of us, at least. Most of us with those types of jobs set our own schedules to some extent, and have the freedom to fit in other important facets of our lives, such as the needs of our children, spouses, and other loved ones. People with home-based jobs often find life to be far more balanced and more satisfying. These are all good things.

As a general rule, people who have their own home business and/or work as an independent contractor, have the most freedom. Employees are often subject to more control by their employers, sometimes even extreme control, even though they work at home.

Those of us whose jobs are classified as independent contractor opportunities are usually responsible for paying our own taxes. Our employer(s) will usually issue us a 1099 at the end of the year showing us, and the IRS, how much income we earned as a result of our work at home jobs during the past tax year.

Another big difference is that independent contractors usually do not qualify for the same company benefits that employees receive.

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