Yours is an interesting situation, Topgun. The employer has some liability issues such that he is unlikely to want you 'working' in his place of business without some sort of contractual relationship, for insurance liabilities purposes at least, but he does not want to pay you minimum wage. If you are not an employee, paid by the employer, there is no way the 'employer' can then issue a 1099 to you for monies paid to you by others. You can probably get an insurance company to sell you a fairly cheap ($100) policy which constitutes a sort of bond, promising to indemnify the 'non-employer' for any problems you might cause. I had a contractor insurance policy for a while when working as a consultant inside a chemical company, which had $1 million umbrella coverage for about $100 (15 years ago, so maybe some inflation, ymmv). You might also want to register your NAME as a fictitious name, dba, so you can perform the service you provide. Then the 'non-employer' could contract with the NAME company for on-site services for a rate other than minimum wage, say $10/month... then when the NAME company obtains money for services provided, you set up a bank account for the dba, and redeem all monies received for lawful money per 12 USC 411, thus you get no 1099's and pay no taxes.