Toronto councillor's Uber tweet sets off firestorm

Blogto.com
Sept. 28, 2015
By Amy Grief

Jim Karygiannis isn't a fan of Uber. In July, the Ward 39 councillor warned Uber users that they could face fines up to $20,000 for hailing the ride sharing service. Less than one month later, he confronted an UberX driver who was picking up a passenger in Scarborough.

On September 24, he released an open letter to the Prime Minister alleging that Uber doesn't pay HST. Since Toronto city councillors are so fond of Twitter, he tweeted it out on the same day and subsequently received mixed feedback.

Redditor Fla_fla_flunky posted a particularly eloquent part of the online conversation after Karygiannis replied to Twitter user @HarryEatsBagels in the wee hours of the morning.

The subsequent discussion on Twitter hinges on two issues (well, three if you include the all-caps response from Karygiannis): 1) whether Uber drivers are legally on the hook to pay HST because as independent contractors, they'd need to file it only if they made more than $30,000 in a 12-month period, and 2) whether or not licensed taxi drivers are skipping out on HST when they make pre-arranged cash-fare deals.