Article
What tax and administrative records show about platform earnings
Tax forms and other administrative files record transfers that platforms report to tax authorities. Researchers have used those files to ask how large platform earnings are, how concentrated they are, and how they compare with what people report in surveys.
Collins and colleagues on tax records
Work associated with Brett Collins and co-authors has examined IRS information returns linked to online platform activity. Those papers describe large numbers of people with small annual amounts and a smaller group with more substantial receipts.
Bank-linked datasets
Diana Farrell, Fiona Greig and collaborators at the JPMorgan Chase Institute have published analyses of checking-account deposits associated with platform platforms. Those studies cover customers of one bank and are not a census of all workers.
Disagreement with surveys
Abraham and colleagues have compared administrative traces with survey responses and documented systematic under-reporting of platform spells in some questionnaires. The disagreement is itself a research finding about measurement, not a claim about any reader’s circumstances.
Limits of this summary
Administrative coverage depends on filing rules, thresholds and platform reporting practices that change over time. This page summarises published interpretations; it does not replace the original tables or legal definitions.