In the UK the NI (personal tax) number, is one piece of personal data that can easily be used as a weapon for identity fraud (someone takes your private details to impersonate you, creating bank accounts, getting loans/mortgages etc, and YOU pay the bills the fraudster racks up). This happens increasingly often, for example, there are very currently many phishing emails/postal letters/texts/phone calls, in the UK, all pretending to be from HMRC. The advice to consumers is, "If something REALLY is from HMRC, they'll quote your NI number in their communication."
Airbnb have recently asked all UK hosts to supply their NI number to the company. This isn't a safe idea! No one except the British tax authority (and a select few other British institutions, such as public health services), should have this number, if you want to reduce your risk of ID fraud and keep your personal data safe, don’t give out this number. Alarm bells ring at the thought of giving it to a private American company, who then send it to a tax office in Ireland, after which Ireland transfer it to the UK. That's 2 transfer opportunities for hackers to steal it as it moves from system to system around the world. The UK tax authorities can identify Airbnb hosts from the name address and other info Airbnb already hold and already give to HMRC, they can do this without compromising our privacy and security.
Storing and passing round sensitive data outside of the UK tax authorities, I believe to be an infringement of our right to privacy and security. The irony is, we make a couple of thousand a year after expenses under the rent-a-room scheme, so wouldn't pay tax anyway. I'm loath to risk my personal security when no one will raise any tax benefits from it!
I will pay any tax I'm due, but won't compromise my security. I've delisted and will use the space for my family in future.
