There are 64 million freelancers and there’s no way the IRS or Department of Labor can track them – but they try

The US seems to have it in for gig workers and those who use them.

California – the fifth-largest economy in the world – has significantly curtailed the ability of companies located there to hire independent contractors and freelancers in lieu of employees. The US Department of Labor has issued updated rules that address worker classifications, which have forced more companies to reclassify their independent contractors as employees in order to be in compliance. New rules from the Internal Revenue Service will now require payment-processing firms to provide additional reporting on the payments made on 1099 forms, the document commonly used to report a freelancer’s earnings.