I am an Indian graduate student holding an F1 visa. I had worked as a consultant for 3 months in 2008(summer) and had received $15,000 as compensation (as reported in Form 1099_MISC). Please advise how much tax do I owe and how should I file 1040NR-RZ.

Would greatly appreciate if you could respond back as quickly as possible (as 04/15 is the last date for filing taxes).

You are independent contractor. You will report your income and expenses on schedule C or C-EZ (Form 1040). Then you put net income (or loss) on line 12 of Form 1040.

Normally this income is subject to SE tax at 15.3% but in your case you do not pay any SE tax. Read: Your U.S. Tax Return: Tax Filing by Self Employed Sole Proprietor or Independent Contractor (http://taxipay.blogspot.com/2008/04/tax-filing-by-self-employed-sole.html)

Thank you very much for your response. Could you please explain why my income is not subject to SE tax? And by that do you imply that I do not need to pay any tax for the $15,000 that I had received as compensation?
I am using TurboTax to fill out my tax forms. And when I report details of my 1099-MISC form to TurboTax it calculates my federal tax due to be $2,235.
FYI no state or federal tax was withheld on the compensation that I had received.

I would suggest that you not use Turbo Tax as it is going to say that you owe since you are filing your taxes incorrectly.
Try using a paid company H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, etc. and get them to do your taxes for you.
You will be able to write off what they charge and you may come out better in the long run.
"A tax FYI" ""ALWAYS DO THE LONG FORM""
There are things you can use as a deduction that most people forget about every year.
I could start listing them but it would take days.
A short example would be: your clothing and the care of them (washing etc) your phone, ( were you on call for this job?)

Also here is the link that may help you more.

Your U.S. Tax Return: Tax Filing by Self Employed Sole Proprietor or Independent Contractor (http://taxipay.blogspot.com/2008/04/tax-filing-by-self-employed-sole.html)

Thank you MukatA and TimPitts for your responses.

Unfortunately I have not yet found any online tool(either paid or free) that could correctly fill out form 1040NR-EZ for me. I tried using H&R Block and found out that they don't fill out 1040NR-EZ online and I would need to meet a tax consultant. I would not be able to go and meet a travel consultant at this point. I would really appreciate if you could direct me to a software tool that correctly fills out form 1040NR-EZ.

MukatA could you please tell me if I need to fill out form 1040 instead of 1040NR-EZ to report my income and expenses on schedule C. Also, since I had worked for only 3 months am I still allowed to report expenses incurred during the period of employment.

I checked the link Your U.S. Tax Return: Tax Filing by Self Employed Sole Proprietor or Independent Contractor (http://taxipay.blogspot.com/2008/04/tax-filing-by-self-employed-sole.html)
But it does not clearly specify anything about an F1 student working as an independent contractor. Am I missing something here?

Please help...

On your 1099-misc income you will pay income taxes but you will not pay self employment tax.

Thank you MukatA.
I really appreciate your help.

Could you please tell me how much income tax would I have to pay for the $15,000 compensation that I had received?

I am an Indian graduate student holding an F1 visa. I had worked as a consultant for 3 months in 2008(summer) and had received $15,000 as compensation (as reported in Form 1099_MISC). Please advise how much tax do I owe and how should I file 1040NR-RZ.

Would greatly appreciate if you could respond back as quickly as possible (as 04/15 is the last date for filing taxes).

Sorry to get back so late,
But what I would do even though you hold an F1 visa is to file the long form using something such as Tax Act (taxact.com) or something like it.
I find it most cases there is no need to pay a professional to do your taxes when you can do the same as they do for less and in most cases get back more if not the same amount.
Remember that you also have many deductions that you can take and don't realize most of them.
As I stated earlier, file yourself and if you need further help, e-mail me. :)