‘Gig’ Workers Helping to Boost Earnings for Intuit
Intuit, makers of the world’s most popular accounting software Quickbooks, has recently said they expect higher earnings, thanks in part to freelance “gig” workers.
Earlier this month, Intuit’s Brad Smith discussed his company’s financial expectations in a conference call with analysts. According to Smith, Intuit will report higher-than-average earnings due to the influx in freelance workers from Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit and similar companies. The Intuit executive says that nearly one-third of the workforce fall under the category of these gig-based freelance workers. Rather than seeking work as employees, many American workers are now working as freelancers for the aforementioned companies.
“And these individuals have complexity,” explained Intuit Chief Executive Brad Smith. “They have to separate their personal and business expense, and then in the case of the United States, have to follow Schedule C. And so ultimately when you put that together, you say there’s a lot more of them.”
Of course, this phenomenon has helped Intuit’s line of accounting software for self-employed workers. Intuit said its user base of Quickbooks Self-Employed has doubled in the past year, jumping from 180,000 to 360,000. Furthermore, Quickbooks Online has experienced a 59% increase in users, now boasting more than 2.2 million subscribers. These statistics have helped Intuit increase its revenue by roughly 10% in the quarter to $2.5 billion.
With that said, Intuit was quick to note that it faced several challenges, one of which is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data revealing that total tax returns are down for this year, sitting below the <1% mark projected by Intuit. And the DIY tax-filing operations of Intuit has also been on the decline. Nonetheless, these factors haven’t stopped Intuit from growing into one of the world’s largest providers of accounting software and services.
So, what’s next in store for Intuit? We can only speculate, but Intuit will likely continue to dominate the accounting software and services market. There’s no sign of this trend slowing down anytime soon. On the contrary, the increasing number of freelance workers — both here in the United States and abroad — will likely strengthen Intuit’s footing in the market. In the meantime, you can check back with our blog for all of the latest news surrounding Intuit and Quickbooks.
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