Update tax-payer

[Emanuele124]

Hey,

is there a way to make sure Airbnb reports to EU authorities the right tax payer?

Long story short my family rents out grandmas place after she died. Since they're not too skilled technology wise we used my Airbnb account to set this up, while the payouts go entirely and directly to family member that does the work.

They get the money and manually report it to tax authorities. 

Still airbnb reports me yearly to tax authorities, and there's apparently no way to change this.

Any ideas?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Emanuele124 Does it matter? I would talk to your tax authority and explain the situation. In most jurisdictions there are strict rules as to who pays tax and I doubt if the ownership of the Airbnb account comes into it.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Emanuele124 But to be more helpful you could make the family member a co-host and direct 100% of the money to them. That said I don't know if you are still liable for a proportion of the tax if you own the property.

[Emanuele124]

They own the property, I don't.

They are already co-host and get the full payout.

I know I can talk about it with tax authorities but I wonder whether there's a way to make Airbnb report this correctly instead of just making wrong assumptions.

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

@Emanuele124 

If the account still shows you as "owner" then Airbnb considers you the owner, no matter how the payouts are split. There is no "assumption" per se.  

The proper way to have setup the account would have been for the account to be correctly setup with the relative as owner (since they are the actual owner) and with you as Co-Host. You could then become "Primary Host" from the guest side, but the actual owner on the profile is the property owner - not you. You could then assist them as a Co Host as needed. 

Unfortunately, there is no way to "fix" this. Airbnb does not allow you to change this, or transfer ownership of a listing. You could setup a new listing, but all the reviews will stay with your profile, because reviews stay with the "owner" of the account. Your relative would have to start over. Additionally, Airbnb has been suspending "duplicate" listings, so if you were to create a new listing, it could be suspended as a duplicate.

Primary Hosts vs Co Host vs "Owner"

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1536#section-heading-2-0

[Maria23669]

Hi @Emanuele124 , 

I was wondering if you have had any progress with this issue and how you are planning to handle it, as I have exactly the same issue with my mom's airbnb that I set up on behalf of her... I live in Denmark and airbnb reported the income as mine to Danish tax authorities. All payouts were done to my mom's account and she is the house owner. 

I would be extremely grateful on any advice you might have on this and I can also help by keeping you posted on any way I can find to correct this.

All the best, 

Maria

[Emanuele124]

Hi Maria,

Unfortunately no solution so far, other than the manual reporting to tax authorities and hoping for their understanding 

[Maria23669]

Hi @Emanuele124 , 

Thanks for the response. So did you communicate with the authorities about that? I think that my issue is a little bit more complicated as the house is in greece and I live in Denmark, so the income is reported in Greek authorities. I will need to talk with them to see what can be done. But thanks a lot for the answer, greatly appreciated.