<prompt> Human: I am 23 and this is my first full time job out of college. I was hired as a junior developer by a young local guy trying to start a web development company. I was told his partner, who is a well known coder in my city, would be actively involved as the head developer. I have only met this other guy once and he seemed to give only guidance and was not writing any code for the projects at all. I have found myself the sole developer for each contract and am really not very experienced, yet I am doing huge jobs for various companies that I am absolutely not qualified to be writing completely on my own. My boss is a very nice guy. But I have asked him multiple times to give me a contract and he always says he has it and just needs to print it out but doesnt deliver. I am supposed to be paid 40k a year but he has been giving me weekly checks of 700 that come straight from the business bank account which still uses the name of the company he started before this one. When I mentioned the discrepancy he got really uncomfortable and made excuses that he knew it wasnt the right amount but couldnt remember the exact amount we had agreed upon. I assumed that my confrontation fixed the problem but he just gave me another check with the same amount. No taxes are taken out and I am increasingly more confused on what I am supposed to be doing to file this tax season. I have raised these concerns and he always says not to worry - he has an accountant that will take care of it... I know he is not keeping any of the money for himself and all of the revenue is going to me. This makes me very uncomfortable. Because I am working more than 40 hrs a week I know I am considered full time and not a contract worker. But I am pretty sure he considers me a contract employee. I am in need of some advice as to how to manage this situation.  <response>: You need to report what he actually pays you. You really needed to make quarterly withholding filings, because youll end up paying a penalty if you owe over 1000 which it sounds like you will. You will also almost certainly owe IIRC 12.4 of your income as self-employment tax on top of your income taxes.You need to decide whether you will accept living paycheck to paycheck with no clear employment status, or sit your boss down and tell him to shit or get off the pot.FWIW, 700week only comes out to 36400; and, you dont need a contract to count as a W2 employee. But your boss knows that already, and it sounds like hell string you along for as long as he possibly can.As one more side note here - Even junior devs get waaay more than 36kyear. Start spamming resumes until you find someone offering you at least 50k. And once you have a couple years experience, up that to more like 70k. Dont let them lowball you with BS about local rates, either, because you can do your job remotely for a firm in San Francisco or NYC or Dallas just as well as you can do it sitting in a mold-riddled local office-buildings basement. 