View Single Post
  #21   Report Post  
Old May 22nd 19, 09:01 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Roland Perry Roland Perry is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Aug 2003
Posts: 10,125
Default Uber and the VAT man

In message , at 00:33:03 on Wed, 22
May 2019, JNugent remarked:
On 21/05/2019 18:01, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 17:00:44 on Tue, 21
May 2019, JNugent remarked:

With Uber (which I have used only twice, neither time in the UK),
the* charges are payable to Uber. If UK VAT applies to their
charges in the* UK, it will have to be paid to Uber, presumably at
20% of the charge.* How Uber divide up the charge (ex-VAT) is up
to them, but all of it* will be liable to the tax if any of it is.

*The theory is that with taxi drivers below the £85k VAT limit,
they can't charge their riders VAT.

That's taxi-driving for you.

With Uber, the charge is not paid to the driver (and the drivers are
not taxi-drivers just as the cars are not taxis). The rider's sole
contract is with Uber itself.

Unless Uber is an agency and you are booking with the successfully
bidding driver, and as part of the agency agreement Uber pass your
money to them. Separately charging the driver a commission.


You have more or less described what we might call a "traditional
minicab" (traditional since 1960, that is). The driver gets paid by the
passenger and the driver pays a commission or radio circuit rent to the
operator. The operator's turnover consists of the aggregate of the
radio rent commissions paid to them by the drivers.

But it definitely isn't what happens with Uber. There, the passenger
pays Uber, and Uber pays a part of the charge to the driver.


Alternatively, the Uber pays [on paper] the whole charge to the driver,
but registers the fact that a commission is due, and at the end of the
day (or week or month or whatever their accounting period is) deducts
one from the other before handing over the *cash*.

It's 180 degrees the other way round from the Welbeck Minicab model.

*All* of the money is therefore part of Uber's turnover. And that's
before a penny of it reaches the driver, the driver merely being one of
Uber's overheads.


As this is a railway group, is the turnover of a booking site like
Trainline the whole of the fares they sell, or just the what? 9%
commission they get paid.
--
Roland Perry