Once the federal government establishes a mandatory filing system for the shared economy, Uber drivers and Airbnb landlords will no longer be able to evade taxes. With the launch of a new revenue reporting system, tax-evading Uber drivers and Airbnb landlords are receiving federal attention.
On January 23, the Treasury released an industry discussion paper on plans to establish mandatory systems to ensure that shared economic participants can pay taxes fairly, and these platforms will be forced to report data to the ATO. So that ATO can correctly assess the income of the 11 million Australians who use these platforms. The report also suggests reducing red tape for those involved in the stock economy.
"A growing number of Australians are starting to take advantage of the choice of more revenue sources from platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, leading to significant growth in Australia's shared economy," Zed Seselja, assistant Treasury secretary, said in a statement. "but as that number grows, the risk arises that some individuals do not declare all their income and do not evade taxes." "We are committed to ensuring that people pay taxes fairly." It is estimated that the total income of users of these platforms is now about A $15 billion a year.
The federal government's goal is to participate in the sharing of the economy, not the platform itself. The main players in the sharing economy are Uber,Airbnb,Airtasker and takeout services such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats, but the reform is aimed at people involved in and making money from it, not the platform itself. Relevant consultation documents have been uploaded to the Ministry of Finance website, the deadline is February 22.