Taxation in a Global Digital Economy

1. S. 62Taxation of the Sharing Economy

1.1. Sharing is Caring

Sharing economy, collaborative economy, collective consumption, peer-to-peer economy – these terms are all synonymous in obeisance to the same fundamental principle: ‘sharing is caring’. In our increasingly globalised world, innovation knows no bounds as communities continue to exploit technological means to increase the efficiency in our way of living. The concept of a shared economy is not a new one, but the unprecedented scale by which collaborative consumption now takes place via technology, is. Sharing activities were once confined to a village, amongst neighbours and known peers. Nowadays, with the advent of peer-to-peer platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, peers can be reviewed and verified by online communities and sharing transactions identified and executed within the click of a button.

The sharing platforms of Uber and Airbnb are familiar to most, even if not all have used them personally. For example, in Australia, 60 % of Australians report having used a sharing economy service in the past with an even higher percentage open to using one in the future. The collaborative economy uses technology to connect consumers di...