{"id":40244,"date":"2023-10-20T15:07:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/aussie-ridesharing-startups-hit-out-at-uber-over-gst-ruling-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:07:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:07:03","slug":"aussie-ridesharing-startups-hit-out-at-uber-over-gst-ruling-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/aussie-ridesharing-startups-hit-out-at-uber-over-gst-ruling-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie ridesharing startups hit out at Uber over GST ruling – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Uber<\/div>\n

Is Uber right? Should its drivers not be required to register for, and pay, goods and services tax (GST)?<\/p>\n

Some Australian ridesharing services don’t think so, with\u00a0GoCatch chief executive David Holmes this week calling Uber a \u201cbully\u201d in its attempt to dodge the tax.<\/p>\n

This month, Uber lost a Federal Court battle against the Australian Taxation Office over whether or not its drivers should register for the GST.<\/p>\n

Generally, the GST Act<\/em> only requires business operators, including independent contractors, to register for GST if they earn over $75,000 but there is an exemption for taxis.<\/p>\n

Back in 2015, the ATO said the taxi exemption applied to “drivers under ride-sourcing arrangements”<\/a>, at which time Uber increased its prices by 10%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“A driver providing taxi travel via a ride-sourcing or similar enterprise is making a taxable supply under GST\u00a0legislation,” the ATO states<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that other Australian-founded ridesharing companies like Shebah and GoCatch do include GST in their pricing, Uber took on the ATO in the Federal Court and has expressed disappointment<\/a> over this month’s ruling.<\/p>\n

After trying to convince Europe’s highest court <\/a>that it’s not a taxi company, the ridesharing giant used the same defence in Australia.<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0GST roadblock deterring Uber drivers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

During the case, Federal Court Justice John Griffiths said the definition of the word \u201ctaxi\u201d can be applied to the UberX service and therefore Uber drivers must pay GST on their earnings, according to SBS<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now reviewing the decision and will provide our driver-partners with more information as soon as we can,\u201d said an Uber spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Shebah founder Georgina McEnroe says she has always priced her ridesharing services to be inclusive of GST.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that it’s important that if drivers are required to pay GST that they receive it to pass onto the government,\u201d McEnroe tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

And GoCatch chief executive David Holmes says Uber is being a \u201cbully\u201d in its attempt to dodge the tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an overseas company thinks it is above the law, and essentially extends the middle finger to all and sundry, that\u2019s when Australians will kick up a stink,\u201d he told Business Insider<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s high time that the international bully that is Uber was brought down a peg or two \u2013 Aussie style. Big international bullies tend not to like it when the so-called playing field starts to level out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Holmes has called out Uber.\u00a0After GoCatch hit more than 350,000 downloads, Holmes told StartupSmart<\/em><\/a> it had faced fierce competition from Uber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pretty brutal, they play dirty but we\u2019re not going to come down to their level,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Uber right? Should its drivers not be required to register for, and pay, goods and services tax (GST)? Some<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}