DESIGN-Full-Workflow-Integration-end-to-end-

10 — Gig workers & compliance

Lives in: a 1099 / payroll tool (Gusto / Track1099) + e-sign. Go-live: collect the W-9; pay operators; file the 1099-NEC by January 31.

The back office for the people doing the work. Operators run their own homes and bill their own customers — they’re independent businesses, not employees. That keeps the platform light, and it means we pay them as 1099 contractors, with a couple of rules we don’t bend.

What’s here

File	What it is
`1099-checklist.md`	W-9 → tracking payments → filing the 1099, in order
`contractor-agreement-outline.md`	What the operator agreement has to cover

The path

onboarding (09) ─► collect W-9 ─► sign the agreement ─► now payable
       │                                                    │
       └─ operator goes active (09) ───────────────────────►│
                                                            ▼
   through the year: track every payment to them
                                                            │
                              year-end ─► file a 1099-NEC by Jan 31 for anyone paid ≥ the threshold

Two rules we don’t bend

No payment before the W-9 is in hand. Pay someone first and you’ve made January’s filing a nightmare (or you owe backup withholding). The W-9 is step one — a hard stop (LAUNCH-NOTES #13).
File the 1099-NEC by January 31 for every operator paid at or above the IRS threshold (CHANGE_ME — confirm the current number; it’s been $600 for years).

The honest risk — are they really contractors?

If the platform starts dictating how operators work — forced routes, scripts, set prices — hard enough, a regulator can decide they’re actually employees, with back taxes and penalties to match. This is a legal call, not a setting in a tool. This repo documents the contractor path and tells you plainly to check the classification with a lawyer before scaling (LAUNCH-NOTES #14). Better to flag it loudly than pretend the line is obvious.

Keep it separate from customer money (07)

Money coming in from customers (membership, monthly, setup fee) is stage 07. Money going out to operators is here. The two ledgers stay separate, because they’re taxed completely differently and must never get tangled at year-end.

Hand-offs

← 09 recruiting: an operator going active kicks off collecting the W-9 + agreement.
↔ 08 customer list: the 1099 trail lives on the operator’s record (operator.tax).
↔ 07 payments: a separate ledger, reconciled on its own.

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