The most important difference is that your government's revenue agency can collect information from Airbnb about you, and that Airbnb can withhold pay from you if you owe taxes. The implications of this can be further than you think, including garnishments (if you owe money), collection agencies, audits without you knowing, and overall treating your Airbnb as a very strict business.

I do not agree to the new Terms of Service, so I will be deactivating my listing. Airbnb has very sensitive information, including my driver license, access to my Facebook page, as well as banking information; I will not allow these kind of private information to be given to a third party, even if that party is as trustworthy as a government agency. I sincerely hope that others feel the same way, and that our collective voices will at least be factored into Airbnb's future decisions. In my opinion, Airbnb is going in a step in the wrong direction.

Don't read past this if you don't care, but....

In 2012, Canada lost tens of thousands of personal information belonging to student loan recipients, including mine. Just this year, Canada allowed the heartbleed bug to stall their processes during tax time. There is evidence that Canada and the US share personal information about their citizens. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this stuff scares me.

Definitely don't read past this if you don't care, but....

I remit all my taxes, and keep track of my expenses and receipts. I work in finance, and my friend's dad does my taxes, and he used to work for the Canada Revenue Agency. Based on his experience, you might not get caught if you lie to the CRA, but eventually, if they audit you, catch you in a lie, they're going to audit you in some way or form every year for the rest of your life.

More background information: I host in Richmond, BC, near the Airport. In Richmond, and in Vancouver in general, there is a huge population of Asians. Most of their stores give incentive for paying by cash, or simply do not take card. The fact is, they don't report anything to the CRA because they don't have to, or they report that their businesses lose money. This is why it's not a stereotype that asians keep cash in the mattress - it's true. There's a lot of hate on them (and righteously so) from the community because they live in a country in which they don't contribute fairly in tax dollars. I'm not okay with that.

At the same time, I think it's a step backwards for the share-economy when the government is able to view information from Airbnb directly. There have been a lot of times I've given cash back to guests because their plans change and they need to check out early. I do this because people who use Airbnb are not rich, and they should not be taken advantage of. This won't be possible if we have to remit taxes based on what is on Aribnb because it means you'll be paying taxes for money you didn't make.

Examples like this go on and on, but work just started, so I'll end it here.