Also, the much higher VAT rate paid by most hotels in the UK compared to most AirBnBs (17% vs 0.6%) is not because AirBnBs are illegally avoiding the tax, but simply because most hotels, but few AirBnBs, cross the business-size threshold where the higher VAT kicks in.

its not a "higher VAT" threshold, you do not have to register for or charge VAT at all if your business earns less than £85,000 (you might want to if you pay out a lot of VAT though). This is unusual in the EU, most countries do not have this exemption I don't think.

Canada has the same thing. You have to collect more than 30,000$ in income before you need to collect taxes for it.

Thanks. Yes, those percentages must be averages, with most Airbnb's paying zero.

FYI, HN's handy little "web" link, below the title, does exactly that (i.e. Google the headline)

Thank you, we've updated the title.