UKHospitality calls for ‘level playing field’ on tax for digital and physical businesses

UKHospitality has called on the government to provide equality in the tax system by ensuring that transactions on online platforms are taxed appropriately.

The trade association has responded to HMRC’s consultation on online platforms’ role in ensuring tax compliance by their users, recommending:

• Greater provision of information for smaller users and, if necessary, the tax collection for, and payment to, government (as a business service)
• A requirement for large-scale users to proactively provide HMRC with relevant business activity to ensure tax compliance

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “The current tax system is completely inadequate to deal with the complexities of the digital age and hospitality businesses find themselves at a disadvantage.”

Urging the government to “address this inequality” Nicholls said she wanted to see the appropriate tax collected with the use of online platforms.

She added: “Whether through ignorance or as a result of deliberate avoidance, online transactions are frequently not subjected to tax. As it stands, there is too great an opportunity for online transactions to avoid paying tax. Not only does this deprive the Exchequer of vital tax revenues, it creates a plainly unfair disparity between online and hospitality businesses that must comply with rigorous legislation.

“The government must ensure a tax environment that is fair and transparent. We need an overhaul of the tax system to reflect the way in which business is carried out in the 21st century and we need it now.”