Uber Sued by the Canada Revenue Agency to Open Its Books

The Canadian government has turned to the courts to force Uber to open up its books after the rideshare company failed to respond (or provided only partial responses) to 16 out of 29 requests to present documents, BuzzFeed News reports.

On the other hand, Uber claims that this is a routine audit and that it has fully cooperated with the Canadian Revenue Agency.

Interestingly, though, BuzzFeed uncovered the filing, which says the CRA sought Uber’s books, but instead of presenting the documents, the rideshare company offered “various explanations” for not allowing access to them.

“The Minister sought and continues to seek the respondent’s books, records and documents in order to determine whether (Uber) has complied with its duties and obligations under the Income Tax Act and properly computed and reported taxable income,” reads the filing.

The CRA offered multiple deadline extensions, with the final one falling on the same date of October 16 when the government agency went to court. From Uber’s perspective everything is fine, since it is cooperating with the audit and responded on that date, the company says. The government dropped its legal action 11 days after filing it, according to BuzzFeed News.

In Toronto there were 16,000 Uber drivers as of September 2015; the CRA spokesman couldn’t say whether or not they would be affected by the audit.