Taxes for property in Northern Cyprus

[Imran122]

Hello. I am managing property in Northern Cyprus and recently started getting messages to fill up the tax info. The thing is my Tax identification number is not accepted by the airbnb format. Was wondering how other property owners did to fix the tax part?

P.S EU tax info is not for Northern Cyprus, as it is not part of EU. While trying to add taxpayer info in other tab, it says another country/region ( except of US and EU) not available yet. And while trying to use VAT part instead, Northern Cyprus is not in the list.

[Breanna]

Hi @Imran122 

Have you reached out to customer support over in the Help Center about this?

[Imran122]

Hi Breanna. Thanks for providing feedback. Yes sure, I did. They don't know as well, they keep sending me instructions for South Cyprus, but the thing is here in the North we are not part of the EU. So I can not fill up tax info at the moment and keep getting messages that soon my listings will be suspended.

[Golnaz9]

I have this issue too

[Alkan9]

Hi,

We are in the same situation. Have you managed to sort it out?

[Caesar20]

Hello, our payouts have been just released. Airbnb support suggested us to use this option for US and non-EU taxpayer :

https://www.airbnb.co.in/help/article/3165?locale=en

Also, we shared the information from our accountant explaining that this location is not a part of Europe with the explanation that the TIN numbers given by the TRNC authorities do not match with the TIN numbers given by the EU countries. And we sent to Airbnb our document of the registration of the company with the Tax Identification number.

Hope this can also help to other hosts.

[Alkan9]

Hi @Imran122,

We have been with Airbnb since 2022. Airbnb have recently stopped our payments as well. I have been calling Airbnb support and emailing them but they haven't helped at all. 

We haven't been paid for 5 weeks. We have recently took our properties off Airbnb. We have supplied evidence that Cyprus is not part of EU and therefore doesn't require any tax but they don't seem to care. 

Have you managed to sort it out?

[Helen3]

Have you tried posting on your local host group on FB and asking advice from hosts in your location @Alkan9 

[Alkan9]

Hi Helen,

Thank you for your response. Yes I have. A lot of us are in the same situation. Some hosts are continuing to host guests even though they haven't been paid in the hopes that this will sort itself out. I believe this issue will take a long time to sort out. As of now I am just trying to get the money I am owed. Airbnb support have been an absolute joke. Nobody seems to know anything. Airbnb have our money and we can't seem to get any answers or anything. I have tried complaining to trading standards and that is a process. 

[Mustafa208]

We are in the same situation as you. Airbnb support is a disappointing case. Although some want to help, they don't have the right to decide and transfer you one level up. We are in the same situation as you.  

[Imran122]

Good morning. Unfortunately, no. They suspended my account, as I sent did not enter tax details. I tried to speak with support 5-6 times, however each time they send me instructions for South Cyprus, and when I explained that we are separate from South and our tax submission is offline to the local tax entities in TRNC, they did not understand unfortunately.

If you get any solution on how to fix this, could you please also share your experience? I would be very grateful. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Imran122 A random thought: Which country does it say your property is in? I can't remember all the politics but is Northern Cyprus recognised as a country? If not would Turkey work as a country?

OK I've stopped being lazy and looked up the politics. Only Turkey recognises Northern Cyprus as a country. ALL other countries (and hence presumably Airbnb) see Northern Cyrus as part of Cyprus which puts it in the EU - Except it isn't really.....

Oh dear I can see why it is messy.

[Alkan9]

Hi Imran,

If my situation gets resolved I will of course post it here. Honestly it's a joke. I speak to support 3 or 4 times a day for the past 5 weeks. Each time getting a different answer. 

These are the responses I'm getting. 

1) it's because of your tax form

2) it's not because of your tax form. You live in north Cyprus and you don't need to pay tax per artical DAC7.

3) there is no problem at all on your account that we can see. We have forwarded your account to a specialist.

I'm in a circle and I keep getting these responses. I am hoping if we all complain enough then we might resolve this

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Alkan9 Continually calling will not achieve anything and may keep sending you to the back of the queue. The first tier support folks will not be able to deal with the issue. You need to hope that a specialist will eventually get to your case and contact you. I would leave it at least a week between calls. Also be aware that the 1st tier will almost certainly close the case even though they have passed it up the tree. This is annoying but seems to be how Airbnb works.

[Caesar20 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Imran122 , our payouts have been just released. Airbnb support suggested us to use this option for US and non-EU taxpayer :

https://www.airbnb.co.in/help/article/3165?locale=en

Also, we shared the information from our accountant explaining that this location is not a part of Europe with the explanation that the TIN numbers given by the TRNC authorities do not match with the TIN numbers given by the EU countries. And we sent to Airbnb our document of the registration of the company with the Tax Identification number.

And as we were also looking for a solution in the Airbnb community and came up to your question, we thought it might be helpful to share this experience. 

Hope this can also help to other hosts.