Uber v Aslam: VAT implications

On 19 February 2021 the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the case of Uber BV and others v Aslam and others [2021 UKSC 5] upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal that Uber drivers are workers for employment law purposes rather than independent contractors.

The decision confers significant additional rights on drivers such as entitlement to the national minimum wage statutory holiday pay and maternity pay. The employment law and tax implications of the decision are not however the subject of this article. This article seeks to address the wider implications of the case for Uber’s VAT position and to consider whether the company has a potentially significant VAT bill to cough up.

It is worth pointing out at this stage that I have no involvement with Uber and all the information in this article is in the public domain.

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