Just because an individual works at home does not necessarily make that individual an independent contractor for self-employment tax purposes. This is particularly true in the post-pandemic era when a staggering percentage of U.S. companies have gone to fully remote work models.

Many home workers also fall under the category of statutory employees. Here is a court case (LaVerne VanZant, TC Summary Opinion 2007-195) dealing with the issue. Note: Tax Court summary opinion cases cannot be treated as precedent for any other case.

The Tax Court has held that an educational consultant who collected data on schools and collated the data at home using a template provided by the firm who engaged her services qualified as a home worker for statutory employee purposes. Thus, she was exempt from self-employment tax.

Several classes of workers are employees for FICA purposes even if they are not subject to an employer's direction and control (i.e., even if they would not be treated as workers under the common-law rules). These workers, who are commonly referred to as statutory employees because they are specifically classified as employees by the Code, include home workers. (Code § 3121(d)(3)(C)) 

A home worker is a person who:

An individual will not be a statutory employee, however, if the services are performed as a single transaction rather than part of a continuing relationship, or if the individual has a substantial investment in the facilities used in connection with the performance of the services.

Statutory employees are allowed to deduct trade and business expenses in arriving at AGI (above-the-line deductions) while common law employees may only deduct their business expenses as part of miscellaneous itemized deductions, subject to the 2% of AGI limitation (Tier 2 deductions). However, for years 2018 through 2025, Tier 2 deductions are not allowed, having been suspended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Therefore, employee business expenses of common law employees will not be deductible during those years.