The Sharing and Gig Economy: Effective Taxation of Platform Sellers

Foreword

At the 2017 11th Plenary meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) in Oslo, FTA members agreed to work collaboratively on a project to help ensure the effective taxation of those earning income from the sale of goods or services in the sharing and gig economy (also known as the collaborative economy) (OECD, 2017[1]).

A project group, led by the Italian Revenue Agency and the United Kingdom’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, was set-up to carry out the work. The project group held several meetings and the project leads engaged with selected sharing and gig economy platform operators.

This report summarises the finding of the project group. It is divided into four chapters:

• Chapter 1 sets out the background to the sharing and gig economy and the role of online platforms;

• Chapter 2 provides some examples of current approaches that are being taken by FTA tax administrations that participated in this work;

• Chapter 3 sets out a range of options that tax administrations may wish to consider to help enable compliance in this sector; and

• Chapter 4 sets out recommendations and considerations for possible further work.

While the aim of the project was to help ensure the effective taxation of platform sellers in the sharing and gig economy, project participants acknowledged that this should be done in a way that does not place unnecessary burdens on platform sellers, the sharing and gig economy platforms or tax administrations. These principles are reflected in the recommendations made.

This report was approved by the Committee on Fiscal Affairs on 6 March 2019 and prepared for publication by the OECD Secretariat.

Caveat

Tax administrations operate in varied environments, and the way in which they each administer their taxation system differs in respect to their policy and legislative environment and their administrative practice and culture. As such, a standard approach to tax administration may be neither practical nor desirable in a particular instance. Therefore, this report and the observations it makes need to be interpreted with this in mind. Care should be taken when considering a country’s practices to fully appreciate the complex factors that have shaped a particular approach. Similarly, regard needs to be had to the distinct challenges and priorities each administration is managing.