How to Tax The Sharing Economy

The sharing economy refers to online market places that bring sellers and buyers of goods and services together. The sharing economy is rarely taxed, rarely reported to and rarely controlled by the Tax Authorities. In this paper two main problems concerning taxing the sharing economy are identified. Firstly, the sharing economy is difficult to control, since there are many small providers. Secondly, different tax treatment for businesses and private individuals makes it difficult for small providers to know how to comply with tax obligations. The solution is not the introduction of a digital services tax (DST) imposed on the intermediary platforms. Such a tax can contribute to tax the sharing economy, but not replace income tax or VAT/GST.Income tax and VAT/GST systems throughout the world are based on a scenario of businesspeople versus private individuals dating from the 20th century, which is now out of date. A solution could be to tax business persons and private individuals in a uniform way, which would provide a simpler tax system that would be easier to comply with