Basically .........it seems........They are same. Same in a sense that in one - you and your employer pay the taxes (W2) and in another you are responsible to pay all the taxes. And depending upon your situtaion you can go either way. If u don't wanna do all the paper works every three months and pay taxes reguraly  to Uncle Sam then go W2. All you have to do is file tax at the end of the year. If you go 1099, You have to pay tax to uncle Sam every three months ( I am not sure about exact period, but you cannot work for a year and pay taxes to Uncle Sam at the end of year; You haveto pay tax reguarly like all W2 employee do every paycheck.) If you decided to stay on 1099, then at the end of the year you might be able to deduct some of the expenses for you job like car milegae, parking, comuute, office space and so on. But to me staying on W2 is better, if u don't want the hassels. At the end they will just come out somewhat same.

Red Stripe.......Also Google is wonderful.......there are calculators wheer you can use and see the difference.

Thanks, Hopes this helps