Independant contractor - do you qualify?

jobs coming up with contractor 1099 status seem to be a way for people to hire without the need to go into the complications of employee hire .. which seems to be the way things are going more and more these days -- shorter and shorter terms of monatinous work for specific projects that need to get something done to meet a deadline schedule - so if you have been offered some short term types of work, you need to understand what you are getting into .. you will be required to pay your own taxes which could mean filing on a quarterly basis!