Hi everybody
I am feeling getting into a Kafka situation with Airbnb now.
I am a resident of Latvia, Europe, with a business entity (VAT number registered) through which I am managing listings based also in Latvia and in Latvia only. My earnings are thus only from Latvia, where I pay the VAT and taxes upon them.
Now I am getting a notification from Airbnb which asks me to fill my taxpayer information to the US IRS (International Revenu Service).
I contacted the support to ask why should I fill such a form when I have nothing to deal with USA.
I read on the net that Non-U.S. Airbnb hosts with listings outside the U.S. are not required to specify their U.S. tax status.
The support admitted indeed that "After a review of your account, there has been no US tax withholding or US related activity on your account. You can disregard the prompts to fill out US tax forms. Often our system prompts this sort of request when a user puts a US payment or payout method on file, adds a US listing, has a US Identification or phone number, or has a US IP location when logging in to their account. I do not see any of this activity on your account."
Is that a bug ?
Maybe, half admitted by the support:
"We are required by the IRS to build in detection methods on our platform, most of the time it works as it should. Sometimes hosts may do some activity which falsely triggers our system to prompt US Taxpayer information. In cases like yours, having Tax Payer information on your account overrides these false signals to trigger US tax withholding."
Then when I worry if a withholding might happen they change their mind "After consulting with my team, it would be in your best interest to input a W8 on file to ensure no tax withholding in the future on your account. ...I do not see any triggers on your account, but if our system is requesting you fill out taxpayer information, it would be in your best interest to do so- in order to prevent any US tax withholding in the future"
.
OK so about the form to fill this W-8BEN called "I am not a US person I do not have US Taxpayer ID number", there are information to give such to claim of tax treaty benefits, with article number giving the reduced withholding rate and the article number that explain the reasons the beneficial owner meets the terms of the treaty... This is something I just can't do, information I don't have.
When I ask the support what it is all about, I am answered "We are unable to advise how to fill out the form. A tax specialist may be able to support you best." OF COURSE !
Shall I disregard the notification, fill the form I don't understand at all ? If I do will it trigger more problems recognizing I might have US taxable revenus ?
because what I read about this form is that it is for "Nonresident aliens that are only subject to taxation on their income from within the United States. Generally, taxes are withheld at a standard rate of 30%. There are several exceptions to the 30% tax withholding requirement, including exemptions claimed under an income tax treaty."
We agree it is considered you have US income. But in my case I absolutely don't.
If it is a bug as I think, well Airbnb support is also here absolutely not willing to do anything about it from what I understand. So I will get the notification all the time.
Anybody can help ? Has anyone be involved in the same kind of situation ?
