Focus on short-term rentals
Tax administration cooperates with online platforms to identify hosts hiding their income
Pressure is mounting on short-term rental hosts, as the tax administration and the big three platforms (Airbnb Ireland UC, Booking.com BV, and VRBO Expedia Group Vacation Rentals Ireland Limited) near the conclusion of a new protocol cooperation that will lead to identifying those who avoid declaring the incomes they receive.
According to sources, the new protocol will provide for the detailed and better exchange of information between the platforms and the tax administration (AADE) for both the incomes earned by property owners and the register they declare on the platforms. This means that the platforms will automatically disqualify property owners who either do not declare their Property Registration Number (PRN) or declare a fake one.
After a check carried out based on the data provided by the platforms to AADE, it was found that 140,000 properties are registered (on all three platforms). Of these, 37% had declared a false PRN – i.e. in 51,800 cases. Of these, 34,188 complied, paying the corresponding taxes that arose, which amounted to 102 million euros, while 17,612 were expelled from the platforms.
According to tax administration sources, as of 2024 the sums resulting from short-term rentals will be pre-filled in the E2 form based on the data drawn from the three platforms. However, managers and owners will be able to modify data as they may have marketed their properties in other ways. It is noted that last year the sums collected from the short-term rental of real estate exceeded €550 million.
Consequently property owners and managers active in the industry will be the focus of tax inspectors, to identify not only those who avoid declaring incomes, but also those who declare less than what they receive.
The tax authorities state that the audits will be in depth and continuing, and will begin on July 1. This means that in addition to checking the declared incomes of the previous year through smart tools, every month the auditing authorities will search for data from the platforms.
