Contracting vs Salaried

Could be, market is still a little tight unless you know a business discipline. Best part of contracting is the OT.

Consider incorporating. It's extra paperwork but it has a lot of advantages.

Rule of thumb for running your own business (1099 or corp-to-corp) is you need to make (bill) about 30% over your "salary" to break even. Figure the hourly rate of your current salary to be around $50-hour ($100,000 2000 hours (approx)) = $50. So, if you want your personal gross to stay about what it is, you need to bill around $65-hour to pay yourself the $50-hour. If you're clever you might be able to "take home" a little more than that. I find my "overhead" runs around 20% in extra taxes, insurance, equipment, non-reimbursable expenses, etc...

If you are W2 your "employer" should pay their share of FICA and probably retirement plan, medical and dental as well. You'd be OK billing $50-hr on W2.

Another thing you should consider is, you are taking on additional risk by consulting. You should expect to get paid more for that. A lot of guys wont consult unless they can make at least TWICE what they make as a salaried employee. This would mean either working 80 hours a week, if you can get that, or raising your rates.

Unless you are W2, then yes. You'll have to pay an extra 7.65% up to the maximum. Remember: In either a 1099 or c2c scenario you are the "employer" and as such are required to pay your share. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have to pay some other taxes your employer is responsible for.

In summary, your (hypothetical) 100k salary would be covered by $50-hr on W2 (provided they pay your insurance and other benefits), $65-hour on Corp to Corp or 1099. The other thing to consider is, unless you have some unusually sweet deal you won't be paid for time off. To balance that, you should be paid for overtime.

No problem.