When an organization announces a new initiative, what do you expect? A staff list, contact details, social media, and invitations to engage? Not when it’s the Internal Revenue Service.

The new IRS Sharing Economy Resource Center, announced on August 22, has none of the above. Aside from a single webpage and a press release, it offers zero new content and merely links to existing pages.

The sharing economy has been exploding, much of it unabashedly illegal, and is placing pressure on tax and regulatory agencies to modernize and welcome the new entrants. Airbnb alone, the accommodation-sharing website, grew from 47,000 paying guests in 2010 to 17 million in 2015 (p. 3, PDF).

Further, Christopher David, chief executive and founder of Arcade City — a new ride-sharing application — estimates that tax non-compliance among drivers of any rideshare is “massive relative to any other similarly regulated industry.” During a phone interview from Austin, Texas, he compared the breakdown to bitcoin activity, where the IRS has “made [compliance] not at all easy or feasible … almost impossible.”

However, if IRS officials think their simple one-page effort will overcome rising confusion and noncompliance, they are sorely mistaken. This purported center is a symbol of an agency that lacks self-awareness and is out of touch with a rapidly changing economy.

Consider, for example, the question of whether providers of peer-to-peer services are employees or independent contractors (the second link down on their list, after “filing requirements”). This distinction is particularly relevant, because an independent-contractor obligation generates fewer mandates, be they for benefits, reporting, or withholding. Independent contractors, therefore, naturally fit better with the sharing economy … but not so fast.

The decision to opt for independent contractors has turned into a nasty and expensive problem for Uber, another cellphone application that connects drivers with passengers and circumvents taxi cartels. A California judge has ruled that even a $100 million settlement will not suffice for drivers who did not receive “employee” benefits there and in Massachusetts.

Beyond this specific ruling, Matthew Feeney, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute, doesn’t see “how it is possible for ride-sharing, as we know it, to exist with the drivers as employees.” Presumably, the burdens imposed on employers are just too great and could regulate them out of existence.

There is no “magic” or set number of factors that “makes” the worker an employee or an independent contractor, and no one factor stands alone in making this determination. Also, factors which are relevant in one situation may not be relevant in another.

Yet just try to get your head around the IRS explanation for deciding between the employee or independent-contractor designation. It is impenetrable and gives no clear threshold or cut-off point, as acknowledged in their own text

Forgive me for expecting a clear rule one way or the other, but apparently that equates to magic in IRS lingo.

Should you willingly admit your confusion, and place yourself under scrutiny, you are welcome to submit an SS-8 form and have them examine your case. You only have to answer 57 questions and wait at least six months for a reply.

The fundamental challenge that the IRS and Congress must come to grips with is that just too many people in the sharing economy cannot or will not comply with prevailing tax policies. If they don’t address this, as has occurred with bitcoin, gray and black markets will fester, and the federal government will be largely powerless to stop them.

Their latest tactic of directing people to more website links and pages of tax legalese will do nothing to turn that around. David of Arcade City says the best hope for individuals seeking to comply is that private tax specialists will step in to bridge the gap, and the Freelancers Union is one such shop for understandable, personal assistance.

A simple example of confusion is the 14-day exemption from rental income. Homeowners can rent out their properties for under 15 days and not have to report the income. However, when participating formally in markets such as Airbnb, they will still receive an 1099 Form, which means the income is automatically reported to the IRS. They then have to wade into the maze of trying to explain to the IRS that this isn’t taxable income. Good luck with that.

Further, many people engaging with the sharing economy are unaware that they are supposed to make “quarterly estimated tax payments” — either that or have their regular employers deduct more from their paychecks (and there’s another form for that). David, who previously worked full-time for Uber, says that he wasn’t even aware of a quarterly reporting requirement and that it wasn’t discussed among the other drivers.

The sharing economy also attracts independent and anti-authoritarian individuals, given its decentralized nature, and that compounds the IRS’s difficulties. As David explains, “there will be a subset of people who will take advantage of encryption technologies … to stay anonymous and stay under the table.”

The horse has already bolted from the stable, and a confrontational crackdown at this point would only show the IRS to be feckless at enforcing the prevailing laws. Even if they were to make an example of a few people and tighten surveillance around the big players, such as Uber and Airbnb, that would only drive more people to alternatives and cash-only transactions via Craigslist and other intermediaries.

No, the IRS and Congress will have to get serious about economic activity that does not fit in their conventional boxes — serious in terms of making compliance vastly easier to understand and less onerous. The new resource center won’t do it, and that may be the silver lining to the sharing economy. It has the potential to be a catalyst for deeper reform that crosses over to other sectors of the economy.