News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies. Parent comment

Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by kazinator on Thursday March 23, 2017 @04:37PM (#13944023)
Yes, in fact that is how it works. If multiple independent contractors work for some firm, they each get their 30,000 exemption (if eligible) as individual sole proprietors of their individual businesses. They have their own business numbers and GST accounts which are considered individually.

Contractors are considered employees in some ways and not in others. This is mainly under labor ("labour", here in Canada) law which is there to protect workers from being exploited by being reclassified as contractors. Like you can't ask people to work in shit conditions just because they are contractors, and such, or deny them a lunch break.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by graeme on Thursday March 23, 2017 @05:08PM (#13944305)
The firm still collects GST though. It just doesn't need to pay GST to it's contractors. In practice, the firms net finance shouldn't be different regardless of whether they have employees or exempt contractors.

Consumers contract with Uber, and pay Uber. So from what I can see, Uber should be collecting, for itself.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by qeternity on Thursday March 23, 2017 @05:21PM (#13944428)
Fine, so knowing this, Uber collects GST and reduces the fare by the offsetting amount. In one pocket and out of the other. It's purely optics.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by run4yourlives2 on Thursday March 23, 2017 @05:25PM (#13944459)
Except for the fact that the GST gets remitted to the government, instead of to Uber. Your suggesting is an 5-17% reduction in margin, dependent on province.

Either way, collecting GST on a sale is the norm in Canada, regardless of what happens on the back end.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by qeternity on Thursday March 23, 2017 @06:16PM (#13944841)
Read the parent:

> So from what I can see, Uber should be collecting, for itself.

My comment is not about remitting, it's about collection. Jesus.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by run4yourlives2 on Friday March 24, 2017 @12:15PM (#13949930)
I don't think you understand how this works. I can charge you $10 for a candy bar with GST included and make $.95, or I can charge $10 + 5 cents gst and make $10.

It's not at all the same thing as you previously suggested.

The entire point of this conversation here is that $10 + 5 cents gst is a price increase if you weren't bothering to charge a tax at all.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Canada seeks to end Uber's tax advantage over taxi companies by graeme on Thursday March 23, 2017 @06:31PM (#13944943)
It's not purely optics. It's either an increase in Uber's prices, or a decrease in their margins.

By "collecting, for itself" I meant "for itself as the seller" rather than "collecting on behalf of its contractors"

[ Parent | on HN ]