United Future Leader Peter Dunne says we need to change our tax laws to accommodate businesses like Uber.
The ride-sharing application is in hot water with the Government for refusing to comply with the New Zealand Transport Agency's vetting policy.
But Peter Dunne says current tax laws are also of concern. Uber was found to have paid just $9397 in tax in 2014, despite declaring gross revenues of over $1 million.
Through a complex structure of companies based here, in the US, Bermuda and the Netherlands, Uber ends up paying only about 1 percent in tax, according to Fortune magazine.
"When you're moving to an online, non-national boundary to organisation, you need to be really working in concert with international partners over things like customs barriers, over things like tax, over things like standards," says Mr Dunne.
Mr Dunne says the online economy is driving the biggest change to business since the industrial revolution.
"This is not just the guys from Uber deciding they've got a new way of rorting the system - this is actually a whole change in business practise that we're going to see right around the world, right through all series of activities."
He says it's not just about getting more money out of Uber, but fairly taxing online giants who "operate everywhere but actually nowhere", like Airbnb, Alibaba and Google.
"If you're not actually based anywhere, that whole concept has to change."
Newshub.
