Talk to an accountant or tax preparer first.

If all this work's been done this year you can always go for broke and file your 1099 form and claim mileage, expenses, etc if you were lucky enough to use a bank card or visa/mc/discover for this. I had an employer flip on me one year b/c he got audited and decided to openly file my payouts. I got more back on top of the tax refund because I deducted all my associated expenses as well as any unpaid owed amounts, be they unfulfilled payroll or unfulfilled reimbursements.

Just a thought, CYA always when "contracting". Receipts, receipts, receipts and logs FTW.

Short version: If you file an 1099 against your wages what you pay in possible taxes will be far less than he owes you, then the state and fed go after him. They might even make him pay what you're owed.

Just realize you're boned for a reference, not that you care anymore.

 

Good idea.

 

One other thing to watch is the business tax thing. In San Jose, if you file a 1099 for someone - or someone files a 1099 for you, the 1099 recipient is required to pay a business tax to the city. I got laid off in 2008 from full time in 2008, but the company kept me on as a contractor. After 7 months they re-hired me. I paid all IRS and Cal. taxes and thought all was good. In 2010, I got a nice letter from City of San Jose asking for business taxes for 2008 and 2009 plus penalty fees for 2 years late payment.

The city fee is required any time a 1099 is filed regardless of how much you actually made. The annual fee is $150 which isn't a big deal, but if you only made $300-$400, that is a big chunk of your profit.

I noticed that the OP is in Morgan Hill, so this might not be an issue, but many cities have similar taxes/fees.

 

My opinion:
Write this off as a $300 lesson.
You have no legal documentation to show you are owed money or that you own the photographs.

As a professional musician I learned a long time ago: if it isn't written down, it doesn't exist

Next time sign a contract

 

True enough and why my 1099 is associated with my residential address (read as "office") instead of the location. Say if you're a mobile destination contracter, which in the case here the OP is indeed, you file the 1099 to your location, or any other "permanent address". If I ever got a "late notice" for any of the contracts I took for San Jose 2 years afterwards with a "2 year late fee(s)" attached I seriously would walk right down to the city office and promptly laugh my *** off at the clerk while issuing them a Cease-and-Desist-On-Expempted/Unrequested-Collections. It's my job to know the laws where I contract as well as hold myself in check, including my own bonding while "away" on a job. It however is not my job to read a litany of b.s. local regualtions versus the State/Federal Reg's.

 

You might want to look at filing a take down notice.

How to File a DMCA Complaint

Contract or not, if you did not give him explicit permission to host/sell your pictures then you may have actionable cause.

And yes, you do need to pay your taxes. Good news, you aren't expected to pay tax on money you haven't received from him. Bad news, you need to pay taxes on whatever he's payed you to date.