Revenu Qubec wins case against Uber

Revenu Qubeccanofficially open and consult the documents it seized from Uber officesafter aQuebec Superior Court judge ruled in favour of the tax agency on Wednesday.

The decision comes one day beforeQuebec's transportation minister is due to announce updated rules for the taxi industry, as well asUber.

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Judge Guy Cournoyer declared that the information provided to the judge who granted the search warrants established that Uber was not respecting fiscal law at both the federal and provincial level.

Investigators from Quebec's revenue ministrysearched theMontreal offices of the controversial ride-hailingcompany Uber in May 2015, alleging that Uber was possibly violating taxlaw.

The raids were carried out in two separate locations: one in Old Montrealand another in Pointe-St-Charles.

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Uber was contesting the legitimacy of the raids.

Cournoyerwrote it was reasonable tobelieveUber could be breaking the law becausethe company does not requiredrivers of its most popular service,UberX, to have a tax number for GST and Quebecsales tax collection.

In the 55-page judgment, Cournoyer writes that Uber drivers offerlifts in exchange for monetary compensation in the same way that the taxi industry does, whichrequires both "a taxi permit and taxnumbers."

"We acknowledge this initial ruling about Revenu Qubec's ability to examine the items they seized last year,"UberspokesmanJean-Christophede Le Rue said in an email.

"As we have stated, Uber would comply to revisions to the law that would amend the $30,000 small supplier exception and require sales tax to be charged on every dollar earned by driver-partners."