Name: Biden's 'Rescue Plan' Will Sic the IRS on Anyone Who Earns $600 in the Gig Economy
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Biden's 'Rescue Plan' Will Sic the IRS on Anyone Who Earns $600 in the Gig Economy

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Uber drivers, Etsy sellers, and others who earn income through the gig economy could get a nasty surprise from the signed by President Joe Biden on Thursday.Buried inside the 600-page bill that's is a provision requiring gig economy platforms to report information to the IRS about all users who earn at least $600 in a year. Previously, platforms were only required to provide the IRS with information on users who made at least 200 transactions or earned at least $2,000.The tightening of the reporting requirements means a lot more paperwork and tax compliance requirements for platforms. It also means more tax headaches for anyone who might use those platforms to earn a little extra cash. Anyone earning a sizable income via rental properties on Airbnb was already covered by the old rules, meaning this change will only affect low earners. Now, even the sale of a single expensive piece of old furniture on eBay or running deliveries for Uber Eats in your spare time might trigger the new reporting requirements."We believe this provision will create unexpected challenges for small business owners and entrepreneurs," a coalition of trade groups and businesses, including online DIY marketplace Etsy, wrote in urging members of Congress to reject the proposed change. "In a year in which small business owners and entrepreneurs are dealing with a myriad of challenges, making this change would place a burden on small business owners and entrepreneurs and further complicate an already challenging tax season for small business and entrepreneurs."Tightening the reporting requirements is being sold as a way to crack down on tax cheating. Politico that House Democrats believe the change will generate about $8.4 billion over 10 years—but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.9 trillion bill.There's reason to doubt that even those paltry revenue figures will become reality. Nina Olson, a former head of the IRS taxpayer advocacy office, Roll Call that gig workers earning a few hundred bucks are unlikely to pay up no matter what.The big difference is that now the IRS will have their personal information and can go after them."Workers who are under-reporting their income now will become guilty of nonpayment next year and subject to penalties and actions by the agency," Olson , adding that an IRS collection action "can destroy a person's life."Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative think tank that opposes tax increases, that the change to income reporting requirements for gig workers—whose income is reported on IRS form 1099-K—bears a striking resemblance to originally included in the Affordable Care Act when it was first passed in 2010. That provision, which required businesses to report all purchases of more than $600 to the IRS via the 1099 system, created huge headaches for small businesses and was just a year after Obamacare became law.The new reporting requirements are likely to be just as big of a mess for gig economy platforms and the independent contractors who use them.If all of this seems like it has virtually nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, then it actually has a lot in common with the rest of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. From to , Biden's first major legislative initiative is of Democratic policy priorities and excessive spending, with a dash of actual pandemic relief on the side—only about is earmarked for public health efforts.Congress and Biden just agreed to spend $1.9 trillion the country doesn't have, but don't you dare forget to pay taxes on the few hundred bucks you made selling your old junk on eBay.What does this have to do with the pandemic? Nothing.The heavy-handed measure, a direct response to the protests provoked by the shooting of Breonna Taylor, looks like an attempt to deter constitutionally protected activity.As usual, the senator and her allies want to ban guns based on arbitrary distinctions.Grocery store company Kroger has announced that it will be closing three stores in Los Angeles as a result of the county's new hazard pay law.A Reason reporter went to Paso Robles, California, where many businesses defied state orders to close. He enjoyed it. He also got COVID.

Uber drivers, Etsy sellers, and others who earn income through the gig economy could get a nasty surprise from the signed by President Joe Biden on Thursday.Buried inside the 600-page bill that's is a provision requiring gig economy platforms to report information to the IRS about all users who earn at least $600 in a year. Previously, platforms were only required to provide the IRS with information on users who made at least 200 transactions or earned at least $2,000.The tightening of the reporting requirements means a lot more paperwork and tax compliance requirements for platforms. It...

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Eric Boehm

Reason is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 50,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune. Reason was founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander (1947–2011), a student at Boston University, as a more-or-less monthly mimeographed publication. In 1970 it was purchased by Robert W. Poole Jr., Manuel S. Klausner, and Tibor R. Machan, who set it on a more regular publishing schedule.

Biden's 'Rescue Plan' Will Sic the IRS on Anyone Who Earns $600 in the Gig Economy

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