How the Sharing Economy Is Challenging the EU VAT System

Sharing online platforms (Airbnb, Uber, BlaBlaCar, etc.) disrupt the way business has traditionally been done and pose new challenges both to established industries as well as to regulators. In this article, the author explains the main characteristics of the sharing economy business models and outlines the general legal and tax challenges that they raise, before focusing in more detail on specific VAT issues of sharing platforms with a view to providing some guidance on how they can best be addressed.