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I’ve heard of them. But no I don’t know any of it in detail and haven’t needed to, to be honest.
I’m sure most Americans on here haven’t got more than a passing awareness of English/Welsh/Scottish or even EU legislation, and that’s already more than they need 
I do know all about British aristocratic inheritance peculiarities, thanks to Downton Abbey. 
Ahem. The governments of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and every English-speaking country (aka ex-English colonies) all have very similar types of government, because they followed that of the mother country - England. As did the US. Most preferred a ‘living breathing’ constitution; also a parliamentary system which stayed away from ‘fix terms’, and such things.
I think most English people with any degree of education understand how the present forms of democracies (granted slightly-different) started (i.e.1648 the end of the 'Divine Right of Kings by chopping their king’s head), or who John Locke is (1688 - ‘Treatise of Government’); monumental events in the evolution of democracy that happened 100 years before the American Revolution - in England. The US form of governement didn’t come out outer space.
To the present: governments runs on money, the less they have the smaller they tend to be and the freer people are; the more they get their hands on, the bigger, lazier, incompetent, wasteful and oppressive or outright tyrannical they will be. It’s human nature. THAT the US forefathers clearly understood, why they mentioned it and warned future generations about a million times.
Actually, our First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech lead to what folks across the pond believe to be weaker privacy laws. We are permitted to disclose personal information about other people as long as it’s true and legally obtained because of freedom of speech. England has way more surveillance cameras in public places than the U.S. which some perceive as a violation of privacy.
On a side note, I was told by a German guest that it’s illegal to give the middle finger in public in Germany. I told her that I’m glad that isn’t the case here because I’d be in trouble all the time.
The conflict is not about tax evasion at all.
Anytime that a business pays a vendor more than $600 per year the government requires that that business reports those payments with their tax returns including the information about whom they paid that money to. So Air B&B reporting information about who they paid money to is perfectly fine.
The problem comes when air B&B and the City come to an agreement where they are providing far more than income tax information. Air B&B is not just providing Financial they are also providing information about the people who are staying in private homes including their names and when they stayed there. The city is not entitled to that information.
Actually Britain just passed what is known as the snooper’s charter. A lot of news organizations have said that it is one of the most intrusive surveillance laws in the world.
Sure European nations have great laws about privacy between private citizens and news organizations. But when it comes to government rights to surveil citizens they’re really not much better than the US.
Britain just passed what?
This doesn’t apply to Airbnb – Airbnb hosts aren’t vendors, or independent contractors – hosts are considered “third parties” which receive “third party transactions” .
It used to be the case that all hosts in the US would get a 1099 form from Airbnb that reports to that host and the IRS their total gross income from Airbnb. THis is no longer the case – Airbnb has gone to a new process and they no longer file 1099’s for every host. Now they file 1099-K forms, but only for hosts who both received over $20,000 in income, AND who had 200 or more bookings in a given year. (see this IRS page for more info on that: www.irs.gov/Businesses/Understanding-Your-1099-K and tinyurl.com/gvu2h8d ). This change reflects the fact that hosts are not legally considered either employees, vendors or independent contractors. And the change means that Airbnb is not required to report anything about these hosts and their income unless the requirements for 1099-K reporting fit that situation: namely, the host BOTH earned more than $20,000 AND has more than 200 reservations in one year. [quote=“happylittlehost, post:45, topic:10319”]
The problem comes when air B&B and the City come to an agreement where they are providing far more than income tax information. Air B&B is not just providing Financial they are also providing information about the people who are staying in private homes including their names and when they stayed there. The city is not entitled to that information.
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Exactly!
very recent legislation that forces internet service providers to keep your browsing history for a year and allows the police to snoop through it without a warrant. Note it’s British law not EU law. And thanks to Brexit we will no doubt continue with such travesties…
Why is the city not entitled to that information? Every single time I’ve crossed a border I’ve had to write on an official piece of paper where my address is going to be and how long I’m staying there for. Are you saying I can start refusing to give that info ?
I just googled “Snooper’s Charter” ( I had not heard of it either) and found this:
Looks pretty nasty to me!
It’s incredibly nasty. And it passed because we have a totally dysfunctional shadow government …
People are way too eager to hand over their rights. Are you even considering what this could mean in the long run?
It’s a slippery slope covered in WD40.
Lackadaisical attitudes about governments being able to get whatever info they want with virtually no restrictions betrays a certain lack of will. The fruit of such attitudes will grow up to be suppression of free speech (even worse than now) and the loss of even more rights. Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.
Oh well I think you are referring to something else – what you’re referring to has to do I believe with the customs process and border/immigration issues – not with these other issues we’ve been discussing. Yes what you say is true – yet it’s not as though once you write that for customs, the customs agents then send that info to the city and notify the city of everyone who’s going there to stay, from outside the nation.
Lol as if I had a choice in the matter. Governments are known for doing what they want. Iraq war anybody ?
Oh I love your phrase “a slippery slope covered in WD40”!! LOL!!!
And yes, the lack of will – as well as I think the lack of memory. It’s like people have very short term memory, not recalling abuses of government that happened to so many of us (and still occur!) in many nations, so recently!
As far as I’m concerned it’s the same body (just a different arm) asking for the information.
I’m curious on the Snooper’s Charter, if going “Incognito” on Google (Which is supposed to give you some privacy) would help prevent people being spied on by the government – or can you not avoid that without going onto the Darknet?
No you’d have to go on the darknet. Incognito hides things from anyone else who uses your computer - your ISP sees all your browsing history.
No guarantees on the Darknet either - there was that massive ring of peadophiles that just got caught in Norway and they were on the darknet.
Border crossings are a different animal.
If the government can collect names and dates of paying guests in a private residence, THEY CAN DERIVE the right to get that info about non-paying guests. Like your relatives and your friends.
If the government wants to collect tax, they can easily get financial information without names and dates of guests. That’s the problem - names and dates. I don’t care if AirBnB gives them financials. I believe in paying taxes - I like living here.