Airbnb unlawfully withholding amounts

Airbnb unlawfully withholding amounts

Hi, I recently just had an issue that had not occurred before. 
airbnb withheld income tax as if I were a US resident. 
my listing is a Mexican listing, I am a Mexican resident (both physically and for tax purposes), my property is in Mexico, my guest was also Mexican, yet Airbnb withheld money from a payout as withholding for US income tax. They said that this applies to all US listings (mine is not) and that I have to fill out a form that is only applicable if I was a US resident (which I won’t fill out as it could have adverse tax consequences from other sources of income I have). 
customer service has been terrible to I was thinking of seeking consumer protection since Airbnb is not answering my emails anymore. 
Does anyone know if there is anything else I can do before seeking a legal action? Thank you. 

44 Replies 44

Thank you, @Sarah977 

Hi Michelle 

You seem to be knowledgeable with the issue. So I'm a US citizen residing in the US but with a listing in Mexico. Just recently we got our RFC to file in Mexico due to the fact they started to withhold funds.  For last i did receive a 1099k from the US which I didn't claim ony US taxes. I figured I'm paying the Mexican government for that. I've ask a few CPA s about this and seem to be lost about it here in the US. Do i need to file some kind of exemption with the IRS for that income? Am I going to get double taxed?  Please advice

Nicolas-and-Maria0
Level 2
Lisbon, Portugal

Hello Jose-Humberto,

EXACTLY the same is happening to me here in Lisbon, Portugal. I really don't like to be coerced filling in a form (WBEN) making ABSOLUTELY no sense to me.

I submit every year a withholding tax form to airbnb (here in Portugal it is RFI 21) to avoid double taxation but for some reason I am now paying taxes in the US !!!

I just wondered what you have decided to do and if you could give me some feedback. Thank you!

Hi Nicolas and Maria!

I agree it feels terrible being coerced to fill our forms that are not required to avoid having our payments kidnapped. 
i decides to give Airbnb this week to at least engage into the solution.  If they do not try to help me satisfactorily, I will just file a consumer protection claim.  I am sure they will have this coming from hosts around the globe. 
I will let you know how this develops. Please do the same if you find a solution. 
Best!

Quincy
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Jose-Humberto1, I am sorry to hear about this! I have passed this on to the team, hoping they can get to the bottom of it for you. Unfortunately, I will not be able to check your account further here on the CC, but please let me know how you get on. 

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Please follow the Community Guidelines // Volg de communityrichtlijnen

Quincy, thank you. You are very kind!

I will let you know if I have any response from the team that was initially addressing my matter. 
Thanks for caring! 

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

Several years ago, we had a very nice American guest who mistakenly left a lovely cashmere sweater. After discussing it, and despite her telling me to keep it, I ended up sending it back to her. It was expensive, costing me about 50€ for the postage. No problem, I just thought it was the right thing to do. 

 

Afterwards, she thanked me and demanded that she pay for the shipping and so she wire transferred 50$ from her US Bank account. 

 

Oh boy, what a nightmare! When my bank received the transfer, they told me I had to come to the office and fill out paperwork to declare that I am not a US citizen or resident and not subject to US taxes. 

 

I just didn't bother at first (the bank has all my official info anyway) , but then the bank said that if I didn't do it, they would have to freeze my account due to something called FATCA. Apparently the US requires foreign banks who receive any payment from the US to require the account holder to formally declare that the account holder is not a US citizen and liable for US taxes. 

 

It seems the US has its fingers in everything, everywhere. But one thing's for sure, I will never accept any payment to or from the US ever again 😳

 

 

Hey Elaine! Thank you for sharing.  It can be annoying to see these things happening with payments of the sort. 
the issue with our problem is that it is not the bank following (probably misreading) statutory provisions but Airbnb not even answering when they have all the information requires to confirm that I am not a U.S. taxpayer, my listing is not subject to US taxes and that they canning withhold amounts that simply do not make any sense to do so.
your experience must have been frustrating too!!! I am sorry to hear about it! 

@Jose-Humberto1 

 

No I didn't think it was a bank issue for you. But I suspect the US authorities are breathing down the backs of any international corporate entity that collects money and disperses it, to ensure they get their 25 bucks in taxes. Airbnb would be  perfect target for that. 

 

And in its haphazard incompetence, Airbnb likely makes mistakes in assessing who's eligible, or maybe mistakes Mexico for the 51st state. And then ignores it until the host screams so loud it wakes up somebody from their slumber. 

@Elaine701  FATCA's tentacles reach much farther than that. The US and Eritria are the only countries in the world who tax their citizens as opposed to their residents. 

 

This means that anyone who they consider to be what they call a "US person" is supposed to file US taxes. This includes people who were born outside the US, have never worked nor lived there, may have never stepped foot in the US, never held a US passport. But one of their parents was a US citizen when they were born. 

 

These people are commonly referred to as "accidental Americans", and when FATCA was brought in, many of them officially renounced their US citizenship. So many that more people have done this in the past few years than in something like the past 50 years. (The US responded to this by raising the cost of renouncing citizenship from about $400 to over $4000).

 

FATCA was supposedly intended to rout out money launderers and those hiding vast sums of money in foreign bank accounts, but it doesn't make a distinction in reporting between someone with 10 million dollars in a foreign bank account, and you receiving $50 for mailing a sweater.

 

Nicolas-and-Maria0
Level 2
Lisbon, Portugal

Hello @Jose-Humberto1 ,

Finally some good news !!

Have a look at:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Based-in-UK-and-started-to-have-US-tax-withheld/td-p/155542...

I have received some payouts this morning (reimbursements of the 30% withholding tax I was paying in the US).

Good luck!

Hi @Nicolas-and-Maria0 

same situation here.

Did you fill the form in the end?

It seems I can't get anywhere without filling it.

thanks

Victoria

Hi @Victoria1515 ,

We didn't submit the W8BEN form since we asked repeatedly on what grounds we should submit this form and are still waiting for an answer.

Our position is: either it's mandatory to ALL non US nationals having a listing outside the US or we want to know exactly why and on what grounds we should submit it (we already submit yearly a withholding tax form -RFE21 for Portugal- in order to avoid double taxation).

Good luck to you!

Nicolas & Maria Carlos 

David8446
Level 2
Melbourne, FL

I am an airbnb photographer and they have been “backlogged” on payments, they haven’t payed me for photo shoots I have completed since NOVEMBER of last year. $500. They are a **bleep** joke. There is only two people. ONLY 2!!! Running the entire photography program. I have been trying to contact them since November of last year and NEVER hear anything except “your issue has been promoted to priority” and “someone will contact you from the photo team”. Going on 3 months and no one has contacted me. I’m blasting this in every thread I see about payments. ANYONE ELSE WHO’S NOT GETTING PAID FROM AIRBNB WHEN YOU SHOULD BE, WE NEED TO ALL GET TOGETHER AND BRING SOME LEGAL TROUBLE THEIR WAY!

 

Bryan751
Level 1
Vaughan, Canada

They are holding 10's of thousands of my dollars in withholding tax. I am honestly sick of airbnb. I literally hate them. They don't care about there hosts. They treat us like **bleep**, and use us for their benefit.