Checks to start with rental hosts
Tax administration plans to perform auditing of short-term leasing landlords, among others
Property owners and managers who rent out properties through short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, freelancers who will activate their card terminals for the first time from January 2024, the 20,000 professionals with low incomes but high gross profits, and those who bought real estate with cash will be the priority for inspections by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) and its monitoring mechanism in the new year.
At the same time, taxpayers and businesses that received tax refunds (income and VAT) will be targeted, as the data from the audits show that there are cases that need to be checked in depth to safeguard the interests of the state.
The selection of cases to be audited as a priority in 2024 is done based on an automated objective evaluation model following the application of risk analysis criteria and data from internal and external information sources available to AADE. Cases with the highest scores are reviewed on a priority basis.
Especially for short-term rentals, the change in legislation for those who own more than two properties and the increase in fines activate the AADE mechanism. From the new year, those who have three properties on platforms will have to proceed with the opening of books, while at the same time they will be liable for VAT.
In the next period, AADE is expected to receive from the platforms, within the framework of the agreement they have signed, all the data of the leases for the year 2023. At the same time, AADE will also receive the data from the credit institutions for the amounts they have collected. These data will be cross-checked and in cases where discrepancies are found, the owners will be asked to pay the resulting additional tax and related fines.
It is noted that with the recent law, the fines for not being registered in the Short-Term Rental Real Estate Registry have become stricter. The new fine is set, per tax year, at 50% of the gross income of the last tax year and at a minimum of 5,000 euros.
