#it is literally impossible for me to file my taxes online apparently

[msburgundy]

bro i am straight up going to jail because the company i work for is stupid

[ifdragonscouldtalk]

Fun Facts About Varsity Tutors

1. It’s not worth it

Unless you’re doing the online service and only have one question that will take you less than ten minutes to get an answer for, it’s not worth it. Not for you or the tutor. You, as the client, are paying I think $25 for every fifteen minutes of online tutoring. I, the tutor, see $15. This gets worse with real life, where it’s $65 and $18 respectively, regardless of distance driven or resources used (and either I or you are supposed to buy those resources). I, the tutor, am not allowed to discuss these rates with you -- its a breach of my contract to discuss money, and you’re not allowed to pay me in cash or to tip me. Nu-uh. I’m also not allowed to tutor outside of Varsity Tutors. Yay! Non-disclosure and non-competitive clauses in a contract I apparently signed? I read the entire contract before I signed it and didn’t see either of these clauses, but I guess I did sign it. Who knows!

2. Are you freelance?

I haven’t heard anything about a W-2 or a 1099-MISC or anything. I have no idea how I’m supposed to report this income on my taxes. Luckily, I was only working there two months and made probably only $300, so unless I get audited (as a college student, unlikely?) it won’t really matter, and even if I am audited it’s not like I’m going to owe any taxes on the money, I’ve made way less than the federal and state minimums. But hey, if you DO have another job and qualify for it, I have no idea how you’re supposed to file man! Sorry! Go through all your previous invoices and add them up, cuz VT doesn’t care about you. I don’t even know if they have a federal tax code, and I sure as fuck don’t know where to find that if they do. (Doesn’t matter anyway, because TurboTax won’t allow me to put freelance work on my tax form unless I pay them $30. Next year I’m doing my damn taxes by hand.)

3. “We provide free resources!”

No they don’t. Their resources suck and their search system is impossible. Each of their resources are rife with errors and don’t have instructions on how to use them. I had a better chance going on pinterest and finding something very specific than I did going to their ‘resources’ and just typing “English”. They bombard you with ‘resources’ in the hopes that you never actually bother to look at them and see that they’re all bullshit.

4. I quit but it still says I’m employed with them

I literally terminated my contract. I resigned. I said “I don’t want to do this anymore and I don’t like your contract so I’m quitting.” They apparently just put my account on hold and put my availability on zero. For all I know, I’ll be employed with VT the rest of my god damned life, because I can’t figure out how to ACTUALLY quit. Does the contract I said I wanted no part in anymore still hold me? Is that contract I don’t remember signing even legally binding anymore? I was checking their website today and apparently it was only copywritten through 2018 anyway, what the hell is up with that. I don’t want to be employed with you anymore, please just tell me how to file my damn taxes. You’re useless and I only wanted to make some money to take my sick guinea pig to the vet at the time. Are they allowed to do this? Are they allowed to list me as an employee when I formally sent an email to them declaring my intent to terminate our employment relationship? Probably not. It’s highly unethical, if not illegal. But like hell I’ve got the money to fight them -- NO ONE working for them has the money to fight them. All of the news reports I can find about them are from Saint Louis, where I guess they’re centered? Or from PR websites, so literally scams. I think that says a lot about them already.

tl;dr Don’t use Varsity Tutors. Go on craigslist, or care.com. You can find literally most VT tutors on care.com, with better rates, and all the money goes to them instead of into the pockets of a company that can’t be bothered to give me a W-2 because since they commit tax fraud, I can too!