<prompt> Human: I received an offer letter for a summer internship that was really an independent contractor agreement. I was a bit confused but thought that working as an IC would give me more freedom on how and where I could do work at the expense of paying Self-Employment Tax and not receiving any employee benefits.I wrote to the HR CEO to confirm that this classification was correct, but was only told that I would be required to work full time at normal hours in the office.I want and need this job, but I dont want to screw myself over. How do you recommend approaching this? The employer probably wants to disguise my internship employment as IC for tax reasons Im assuming I dont know why else. Should I sign the offer and play along?For your benefit, suppose the internship pays USD 4,000 per month, no withholdings. As a Washington State resident coming to work in CA, would I have to file taxes in CA, too?  <response>: I went through something similar. I asked for an internship and my boss said they were authorized to pay interns 17 an hour. As a contractor he could pay me 50 an hour. It was my choice if I needed the credit for school. I took the 50 an hour. 