Uber and Lyft legally avoid paying around $135 million per year in Canadian taxes, including around $81 million in avoided EI and CPP payroll taxes, and up to $54 million in avoided corporate taxes, based on 2019 figures. To avoid paying EI and CPP payroll taxes, while also avoiding responsibility for standard employment protections, the companies claim to merely be digital service providers, rather than transport companies and employers. The same claim to be a digital service has allowed ride-share companies to avoid paying around $217 million in GST/HST remittance, while placing the responsibility for collecting these taxes onto their drivers. To avoid corporate taxes, Uber moves its profits out of Canada, legally using shell companies and tax havens like the Netherlands and Bermuda. Through complicated payments between its own subsidiaries, Uber records book losses, allowing it to compile “tax assets” that can be deferred to offset the company’s tax bills in future years, even if the company becomes profitable. Canada’s planned 3% digital services tax would generate $60 million in annual revenue from Uber and Lyft.