Letter from Uber to Mayor de Blasio

August 24, 2015

Honorable Mayor Bill de Blasio
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor de Blasio,

In recent weeks, your administration have made several statements about Uber and taxation which are simply untrue. For example on the Brian Lehrer Show last week you said: “Anyone who has a for-hire-vehicle should be paying the appropriate taxes because we have to provide all of the things that make their work possible, the roads and we also have to support the MTA which is in the interest of all of us and that happens right now through certain of our taxis but it doesn’t happen through Uber.”

We wanted to set the record straight: Uber actually generates far more tax revenue from riders in New York than taxis do. Each taxicab ride includes a flat 50-cent tax while each Uber ride includes an 8.875% sales tax charge—which works out to about $2 per ride. In other words, Uber generates 4 times as much in taxes per ride as taxis. In total, as the attached chart shows, Uber now generates almost $1 million more per month in tax–and that gap will likely continue to grow. So far this year Uber has generated a total of nearly $40 million in tax revenue to New York City and State.

How New York chooses to invest tax revenue generated by Uber is clearly a matter for government to decide–though it is worth noting that Uber does already contribute to New York’s mass transit system as a portion (albeit a small one) of the sales tax goes directly to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Uber also operates as the “last mile” public transit for many riders in New York’s outer boroughs. Over 50% of Uber trips in the outer-boroughs start or stop within 5 blocks of a subway station.

We hope this clears up any misunderstanding that may have been created by your comments about Uber’s significant local tax contributions.

Sincerely,