‘New Years’ Nightmare’: IRS Targets Gig Workers, Sends 30 Million New Tax Forms

The agency is charging new taxes on Americans who make a side income of more than $600 from activities like online selling or freelance work.

A sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building is seen in Washington on May 4, 2021. Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

A new IRS tax on gig workers would result in additional documentation that will create confusion among individual taxpayers as the agency does not have “centralized leadership” to deal with the expansion, according to a watchdog.

Starting this year, a new IRS rule required that third-party payment networks like PayPal, Venmo, Amazon, and Square issue Form 1099-K when a user receives more than $600 in gross sales from goods and services transactions in a single year. Earlier, the threshold of gross sales was over $20,000.