Cannot help those in need due to tax form

[Jason1735]

I am trying to help my local community and provide shelter for a short term basis to someone that has been displaced in Colorado due to a wildfire. We are not asking for any compensation, money, or anything at all in return from the intended guest. Because we do not own our home, we've received permission from our landlord to offer our basement to one of the 30,000 people impacted by the wildfires. The Airbnb website is requiring us to complete a tax form which is not possible since we do not legally own this home. The Airbnb team missed this as a scenario and should have an attestation for others like me to select that we are not collecting any form of compensation to help others for disaster relief. This makes us incredibly disappointed that a tax form will prevent a person without a home to seek relief using our extra space, very bad business practice by Airbnb. We are sharing this with our local community including the non-profits providing relief. Please contact me if there is a way to proceed without completing a tax form.

[Sarah977]

@Jason1735  Can you not simply offer the space through a local organization that is matching wildfire victims with places to stay? Why do you want to do it through Airbnb? 

[Jason1735]

We tried and the red cross pointed back to Airbnb.org. The Airbnb.org website (see link below) states they screen the guests, which provides us a lot of peace of mind when offering our home to a complete stranger. 

https://www.airbnb.org/get-involved

"We screen each guest to confirm that they’re eligible to book a stay through our program, and meet Airbnb’s standard verification checklist. You’ll be able to ask questions and chat with any potential guest throughout the booking process."

[Sarah977]

@Jason1735  I would take the "screening" with a grain of salt. There have been reports on this forum in the past by hosts who signed up for open homes and got scammers who weren't disaster victims at all. When hosts offered homes for essential medical personnel near the beginning of the pandemic, some hosts reported getting doctors who in fact arrived with their entire families and basically were vacationing, not treating Covid patients.

As an aside, providing tax info to Airbnb has nothing to do with owning the home you are listing. There are plenty of hosts who don't own the homes they list. The tax info is required so any earnings are taxed correctly. But if you are offering the space at no charge, you won't be earning anything to be taxed on.

[Michelle53]

@Jason1735  If you are referring to the W9 form, everyone hosting on Airbnb in the US has to complete one or be subject to backup income tax withholding. It's the law .   A W9 form doesn't require that you own the property. It asks for your tax ID and residential address.  You will be issued a 1099-K form at the end of the year if you earn $600 or more.