Uber has lost a court challenge against the Australian Taxation Office that will force drivers to be registered to pay goods and services tax.
The ruling could have broad implications for Uber drivers who will now need to register for GST, and if left unchallenged will gave the tax office much greater insight into the company’s tax practices.
Uber challenged a direction from the tax office that its drivers must be registered for GST.
The company argued that its drivers did not need to be registered for GST because they were not considered taxi operators. It outlined technological differences between Uber and traditional taxis, including their use of metering.
But Justice John Griffiths found that Uber could be designated as a taxi service, even though the software and service it offered “may not have been known at the time” the GST act was created.
“I accept the [tax office] commissioner’s submission that the ordinary meaning of the word ‘taxi’ is a vehicle available for hire by the public and which transports a passenger at his or her direction for the payment of a fare that will often, but not always, be calculated by reference to a taximeter,” Griffiths wrote.
He found that a driver put forward by Uber as a case study, Brian Fine, was supplying taxi travel for a fare, even though his car did not have a meter.
Griffiths rejected the tax office’s argument that the UberX service was also a limousine service that would require drivers to pay GST, but largely because Fine’s vehicle in the case was a Honda Civic.
But he left it open for individual Uber drivers to be considered as offering limousine services, depending on the type of vehicle they drove.
A ruling in Uber’s favour could have been used to challenge the status of both its drivers and taxi drivers as independent contractors.
The tax office has previously announced it would be launching a crackdown on services such as Uber to ensure they and their drivers are paying tax.
Uber was also ordered to pay the tax office’s costs in the federal court challenge. It was unclear whether Uber would appeal.
The company said after the court ruling: “We are disappointed in the federal court’s decision today. We are reviewing the decision and will provide our driver-partners with more information as soon as we can.”
