A chancellor who will borrow £394bn this financial year has to come up with a few new ways to raise money, and here’s a Treasury idea that sounds modest but interesting: put VAT on Uber taxi trips and stays in Airbnb properties. It would also seem to pass a basic test of fairness. Most Uber…
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Rishi Sunak is considering toughening up VAT rules for the Uber drivers and Airbnb landlords central to the rapidly expanding sharing economy as the Treasury considers ways of repairing the damage to the public finances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The chancellor has taken the first steps towards increasing the government’s VAT revenues with the…
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Uber has sold its loss-making flying taxi division, Elevate, to a Californian startup as it abandons costly side projects in an attempt to turn a profit next year. The sale to Joby Aviation, announced late on Tuesday, comes a day after Uber ditched ambitions to develop its own self-driving car and sold its autonomous vehicle…
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The family of an Uber Eats rider killed in Australia this year has filed a workers’ compensation claim against Uber, in what could become a landmark case for the gig economy. Five delivery riders have died in Australia since the end of September. Dede Fredy, a 36-year-old Uber Eats worker from Indonesia, died on 27…
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Uber has ditched efforts to develop its own self-driving car with the multibillion-dollar sale of its driverless car division to a Silicon Valley startup. The ride-hailing company is selling the business, known as Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), for a reported $4bn (£3bn) to Aurora, a start-up that makes sensors and software for autonomous vehicles and…
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Uber and other rideshare drivers are earning an average of $12 an hour during the Covid-19 pandemic, and 17% have been sexually harassed or assaulted by passengers, according to a new survey of the gig economy. A survey of 230 workers – 93% of whom work for Uber – has revealed a range of violent…
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