eBay side-hustlers deserve to get taxed

There will be people outraged by the latest initiative of HMRC: to demand that the likes of Airbnb, eBay, and Vinted furnish it with details of everything bought and sold on their online platforms. The taxman should keep his nose out of the sharing economy, many will say. People who sell their secondhand clothes, books, or who earn a little holiday money by letting their property to tourists while they are themselves away from home are doing the environment a favour, they will argue. HMRC should keep its nose out and go for the ‘real’ tax-dodgers in large corporations, who are taking advantage of our tax system by shunting profits to more favorable jurisdictions.

I am all for pursuing big tax-dodgers but sorry, HMRC should not be turning a blind eye to the sharing economy. So long as it observes a de minimis rule and passes its nose over the more petty end of online trading, online platforms should absolutely be expected to cooperate with tax collection.