UBER LASHES OUT AT ATO RULING, SAYING IT DESERVES DIFFERENT TAX TREATMENT TO TAXIS

Uber has argued it provides a “fundamentally different service” from taxis and deserves different tax treatment, despite an Australian Tax Office (ATO) ruling that ride-sharing drivers must charge goods and services tax.

The company said it would challenge the ATO’s “flawed” decision.

On Wednesday, the ATO issued general advice to people providing a range of services through the “sharing economy”.

The so-called sharing economy – also referred to as collaborative consumption or peer-to-peer – can encompass activities such as letting a room through Airbnb, or performing odd jobs or other activities for payment through Airtasker, or driving passengers in a car for a fare using a service such as Uber.

The ATO said people needed to register to charge the 10% GST if their annual turnover from a sharing-economy enterprise was $75,000 or more. But it said ride-sourcing services such as Uber were considered taxi travel under the GST law regardless of turnover, and drivers must be registered to charge the tax from the very first time they took a passenger.

“Affected drivers must register for GST, charge GST on the full fare, lodge business activity statements and report the income in their tax returns,” the deputy tax commissioner, James O’Halloran, said.

http://www.smperth.com/uber-lashes-out-at-ato-ruling-saying-it-deserves-different-tax-treatment-to-taxis/
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CHESHIRE WEST

A Porsche, BMW convertible and a taxi were used by Manchester-based dealers to carry drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis to distributors in Gwynedd, a court heard.

Caernarfon Crown Court was told that convicted drug dealer Paul David Williams, 41, allegedly ran his drugs empire using mobile phones which had been smuggled into Dovegate prison, Stafford where he was imprisoned between June 1, 2013 and November 14, 2014.

Jurors heard that during a search of Williams’s cell, police found two mobile phones hidden in a TV and DVD and a list of 68 phone numbers, half of whom were for people allegedly called by him during this time.

Williams and four others deny charges of conspiring to supply Class A and B drugs. Williams also denies plotting to bring a mobile phone into prison.

The case involves 30 people arrested as part of Operation Measure, a North Wales Police undercover investigation and part of its ongoing Operation Scorpion probe into drugs supply.
Today North Wales Police intelligence analyst Erin Young gave evidence about 39 dates including vehicle sightings, mobile phone data and surveillance matching people to events.

She said Paul Mercer, from Manchester, Heath Bowling, 42, from Stockport and Christopher Pyke, 41, from Pitt Street, Macclesfield - who have all admitted supplying drugs - travelled in cars such as a Porsche Cayenne, a BMW M3 convertible and a Mercedes taxi registered to Bowling’s Taxis, to deliver drugs to distributors in Maesgeirchen, Bangor, Bethesda and Caernarfon.

Bowling ran three businesses, Bowling’s Taxis, Cheshire MOT and Alderley Autos.

The Porsche was registered to Bowling’s wife.

The BMW was registered to defendant Mark Oliver, 51, of Cheadle Hulme who denies conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs and whose car was used by Mercer.


http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/drugs-couriered-gwynedd-porsche-bmw-9307062
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Cornwall-based C&C Taxis has reported significant fuel and maintenance cost savings since taking delivery of a Nissan LEAF in July 2013, which has now covered more than 100,000 miles.
‘Wizzy’, as the LEAF has been named by operators at St Austell-based C&C Taxis, hit the milestone in the course of more than 25,000 pure electric paying fares and having been rapid charged over 1,700 times.

The distance it’s covered since entering service is equivalent to 100 round trips from the company’s base in Cornwall to Glasgow, more than four times around the world or almost half the distance to the moon. But, despite living the same punishing life as any modern day taxi, C&C Taxis reports that Wizzy retains near full battery health and is still on its first set of brake pads. 

Inspired by Wizzy’s performance, C&C Taxis now operates five further 100% electric Nissan LEAFs and an all-electric Nissan e-NV200 Combi. Mark Richards, fleet manager at C&C Taxis, estimates that each vehicle saves the business around £8,500 per year in fuel bills and maintenance costs.

"When we speak to other taxi operators they often tell us range and battery life are the biggest factors preventing them from considering an electric taxi," he said. "Then, when we tell them Wizzy’s done 100,000 miles and still has full battery health, they’re left speechless.”

“It’s no exaggeration to say Wizzy has transformed our business. We took a gamble when we bought her but she’ll have paid for herself in just 24 months and the savings we’re now making across the fleet are phenomenal,” he added.

Built in Britain and priced from £21,490 RRP (including Government Plug-In Car Grant), the Nissan LEAF is the world’s bestselling pure electric car and costs from just two pence per mile to run. It can travel up to 124 miles on a single charge and can be recharged using a domestic plug socket or from zero to 80% in  30 minutes at a rapid charging station.


http://fleetworld.co.uk/news/2015/May/Cornish-taxi-firm-claims-fuel-and-maintenance-savings-of-8500-pounds-a-year-with-LEAF/0434019957