Hopefully your accounts payable department is adequately staffed and trained. That's because the "gig" or "1099" economy continues to grow - along with a myriad of compliance and reporting responsibilities.

A recent  Deloitte survey finds that:

"Almost half of the executives surveyed (42 percent) expect to increase or significantly increase the use of contingent (read: 1099) workers in the next three to five years. Today, more than one in three US workers are freelancers—a figure expected to grow to 40 percent by 2020. This year’s survey confirms that the contingent workforce has gone global. Fully 51 percent of executives in our global survey plan to increase or significantly increase the use of contingent workers in the next three to five years, while only 16 percent expect a decrease. Companies such as Airbnb and Uber embody this trend, but they are not the only organizations profiting from the “gig economy.” Companies in all sectors—from transportation to business services—are tapping into freelance workers as a regular, manageable part of their workforces. Cost structure is one factor driving this trend, with some companies opting to pay purchase orders instead of salaries. The availability of talent is another factor; data scientists, for example, may not be willing to move to a company’s remote headquarters but could be engaged remotely and temporarily."

Needless to say, all of this means an increase in the numbers of Forms W-9/W-8 requiring validation as well as the associated 1099/1042-S reporting responsibilities already burdening your accounts payable department. If you need help training your staff and preparing for such immense changes please do not hesitate to ask!