What kind of relationship do Experts have with OnFrontiers?

Your relationship with OnFrontiers depends on which type of work you accept. You are always an independent contractor and never an employee, but who you contract with changes with the work type.

If you registered as an expert before August 11, 2026, the updated Expert Participation Agreement begins to apply to your work on September 1, 2026, or earlier if you accept it when you next sign in. Work you accept before then remains governed by the agreement in effect at the time you accepted it.

Video Consultations and Written Responses

OnFrontiers is the customer's counterparty for this work. You perform it as an independent contractor of OnFrontiers, and no agreement between you and the customer applies to it. OnFrontiers pays you for its own account and reports those payments on IRS Form 1099-NEC where required.

Scoped Engagements

For project work you contract directly with the customer under the Expert-Client Agreement. You perform the engagement as the customer's independent contractor, and OnFrontiers is not your client for that work. OnFrontiers collects from the customer and settles payment to you as settlement agent, and reports settled amounts on IRS Form 1099-K where required. The customer does not issue you a separate information return for amounts OnFrontiers settles.

What is true either way

You are never an employee of OnFrontiers or of any customer or client. You are engaged in your own independent business, you keep the right to perform services for others, and you are responsible for your own taxes. Nothing in the Expert Participation Agreement creates a joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship.

Because the two arrangements are reported differently, you may receive both a 1099-NEC and a 1099-K in the same year. That is normal and does not mean anything has gone wrong.

For what changed in August 2026, see What changed in the August 2026 update to the OnFrontiers Standard Terms.