The new legal classification, which follows a U.K. court ruling last month, will entitle the workers to more pay and benefits, but stops short of making them employees.
For Gig Workers and Business Owners, Taxes Are Even Trickier Now
Filing taxes has never been simple for freelancers and business owners, but the pandemic has made it far more complex.
Credit.Party of One Studio
Tax time is always complicated for freelancers and business owners, but this year, it’s especially swampy.
Pandemic relief programs that helped small companies and self-employed individuals created new tax challenges. And many people had unusually jumbled patchworks of jobs and income sources last year.
“I’m kind of scared,” said Celeste Holcomb, an artist and designer. In 2020, her income included book royalties; fees for illustration, design jobs and work done through a gig platform; wages from a contract job at a university publisher; and, for several months, unemployment benefits. Ms. Holcomb, who plans to do her taxes herself, expects to spend hours wading through records and tax documents to figure out what she owes.
The House approved the most significant enhancement of labor rights since the New Deal, but the measure appeared headed for a Senate filibuster amid widespread Republican opposition.
Anime Is Booming. So Why Are Animators Living in Poverty?
The workers who make the Japanese shows the world is binge-watching can earn as little as $200 a month. Many wonder how much longer they can endure it.
Tokyo’s Akihabara district, a center of anime culture. The industry’s boom has only widened the gap between profits and wages.Credit.Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times
Published Feb. 24, 2021Updated Feb. 25, 2021
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TOKYO Business has never been better for Japanese anime. And that is exactly why Tetsuya Akutsu is thinking about calling it quits.
When Mr. Akutsu became an animator eight years ago, the global anime market including TV shows, movies and merchandise was a little more than half of what it would be by 2019, when it hit an estimated $24 billion. The pandemic boom in video streaming has further accelerated demand at home and abroad, as people binge-watch kid-friendly fare like “Pokémon” and cyberpunk extravaganzas like “
Biden Changes P.P.P. Rules to Help the Self-Employed
A more generous loan formula for solo ventures is meant to get more very small businesses into the Paycheck Protection Program. But bigger applicants face a two-week pause.
“Getting our economy back means bringing our small businesses back,” Mr. Biden said Monday.Credit.Doug Mills/The New York Times
Published Feb. 22, 2021Updated March 16, 2021
Aiming to put its own stamp on the Paycheck Protection Program, the Biden administration on Monday abruptly changed crucial program rules in ways intended to help the smallest and neediest companies, which have sometimes struggled to obtain aid from the federal relief effort.