IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v260y2026ics0047272726001337.html

The impact of third-party reporting on tax compliance: Evidence from gig workers

Author

Listed:
  • Garin, Andrew
  • Jackson, Emilie
  • Koustas, Dmitri
  • Miller, Alicia

Abstract

The rise of platform gig work in recent years has meant more workers have self-employment earnings, which are not subject to tax withholding but are generally covered by information reporting on 1099 returns. In 2017, many gig workers suddenly and unexpectedly stopped receiving a 1099 for their work activity, providing an opportunity to study the impact of third-party reporting on tax compliance for gig workers. We first exploit exogenous variation in receiving a 1099 information return using a border-county design around the state of Massachusetts where all workers continued to receive a 1099. We find no impact of receiving a 1099 on whether one files a tax return, but find that each dollar reported on a 1099-K increases self-reported profits by 17 cents. We then use the state-level filings to impute the size of the national online platform workforce in 2017 and 2018. We estimate that 770,000 gig workers did not receive information returns due to the change in third-party reporting practices by online platforms and that $560 million in profits went unreported on income tax filings as a result.

Suggested Citation

  • Garin, Andrew & Jackson, Emilie & Koustas, Dmitri & Miller, Alicia, 2026. "The impact of third-party reporting on tax compliance: Evidence from gig workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:260:y:2026:i:c:s0047272726001337
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105697
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272726001337
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105697?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:260:y:2026:i:c:s0047272726001337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.