Airbnb agrees to Ontario request to ask hosts to claim income

Ontario has launched a pilot project with Airbnb thatwill see the home-sharing service tell its 11,000 hosts in theprovince to pay their taxes.

Airbnb has agreed to email people who listtheir homes or otherspaces for rent on its site, telling them to report the income andto educate them about consumer protection rights such ascancellations and refunds.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the "voluntary" goal is toget Airbnb to be in compliance with Ontario's laws and regulations.

Sousa says Ontario wants to embrace the sharing economy, but headmits the changes enabled by technology are disrupting existingbusiness models, such as traditional hotels who say they're losingmoney to Airbnb.

However, he couldn't say when the government would introduceregulations to cover new services such as Uber, which has led toprotests by taxi drivers across Canada.

Sousa says the Liberal government believes the sharing economyhas "significant potential to create jobs and drive growth,productivity and innovation."

Airbnb was founded in 2008 by three friends with air mattressesfor rent, and now lists two million properties for rent in 191countries.