Gig Worker Tax Center

Plain-English answers about taxes on work you get through an app or a platform, built from the federal rules themselves and linked straight back to them.

Two people can do the same deliveries all year and read different rules. What changes the rules is whether the law treats you as an employee or as someone carrying on a business of their own. The kind of work is a fact about the work, not an answer to that question.

A 1099 is not a job title

An information return is a fact about what a payer did. It records a payment and the payer's own description of it. The rules decide a worker's class by whether the person is receiving wages as an employee or is carrying on a trade or business, and no form settles that on its own.

What kind of work are you doing?

Pick the description that fits. Every one of these leads to the same first question, because the kind of work is a fact about the work and not a tax class.

Driving peopleA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.
Delivering food, groceries or packagesA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.
Task or freelance servicesA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.
Selling through an online marketplaceA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.
Creator or digital workA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.
More than one of theseA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.
Something else, or not sureA description of the work. It does not change which federal rule applies.

What are you trying to figure out?

Start with the question you came here with. If you are not sure which side of the class line you are on, start there instead, because most of the other rules depend on it.

Whether I am self-employedWhat actually decides the class, and what a form does not decide.
What counts as income, and what a 1099 meansInclusion, reporting and the difference between them.
Which driving countsBusiness use, commuting, and what an app being on does not settle.
Which costs of the work can be taken into accountThe conditions the rules attach, stated as conditions.
Whether I have to pay during the yearWhat the estimated-tax rules require when nobody withholds.
Whether working from home mattersThe statutory test, in the order it asks its questions.
What records to keepWhat the requirement asks for, and what a platform summary does not replace.
What my state or city doesThe boundary of what official text we have actually read.
How this center worksThe rules we hold ourselves to, and the ones we refuse to break.
The authority behind all of itEvery source, with what it does and does not establish.

What the rules say

True whichever side of the class line you are on

Federal tax treatment turns on whether the individual is receiving wages as an employee or is carrying on a trade or business. There is no separate class for platform work.
An information return records a payment a payer made and the payer's own characterisation of it. It does not determine the recipient's class.
Status can differ across parts of the same year. Where it does, each period is considered on its own facts rather than the year being treated as a single status.

What a person would have to know first

These are the facts the rules turn on. We do not supply any of them for you.

the facts about control and the terms under which the work is performed
the dates on which the working arrangement changed

True whichever side of the class line you are on

Gross income means all income from whatever source derived, except as otherwise provided.
Inclusion in gross income does not depend on whether a payer filed an information return.

True whichever side of the class line you are on

Every person liable for tax must keep such records as the Secretary requires, and a deduction for listed property or travel is disallowed unless the amount, time, place and business purpose are substantiated.
Adequate records means an account book, log or similar record with documentary evidence, made at or near the time of the expenditure or use, recording each business use and total use of the property.

Where this comes from

Every source on this page shows the body that issued it and the date we read it. The federal text behind this center was last read on 2026-08-16.

26 U.S.C. § 1402 — Definitions (net earnings from self-employment)United States Code (GPO, govinfo). Read for: Net earnings from self-employment means gross income derived from a trade or business carried on by the individual, less allowable deductions. Read on 2026-08-16.
Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NECInternal Revenue Service. Read for: Form 1099-NEC is filed by a payer that made payments for services performed in the course of the payer's trade or business. Read on 2026-08-16.
26 U.S.C. § 61 — Gross income definedUnited States Code (GPO, govinfo). Read for: Gross income means all income from whatever source derived, except as otherwise provided. Read on 2026-08-16.
26 U.S.C. § 6001 — Notice or regulations requiring records, statements, and special returnsUnited States Code (GPO, govinfo). Read for: Every person liable for any tax shall keep such records and render such statements as the Secretary may require. Read on 2026-08-16.
26 U.S.C. § 274 — Disallowance of certain entertainment, etc., expensesUnited States Code (GPO, govinfo). Read for: Subsection (d) disallows a deduction for listed property and travel unless the taxpayer substantiates the amount, time, place and business purpose by adequate records or sufficient evidence. Read on 2026-08-16.
26 C.F.R. § 1.274-5 — Substantiation requirementsElectronic Code of Federal Regulations. Read for: Adequate records means an account book, log, or similar record together with documentary evidence, made at or near the time of the expenditure or use. Read on 2026-08-16.