GST TAX NEW ZEALAND

[Genevieve9]

Hi I posted this a couple of months ago and still no reply.... I would really appreciate an answer...

Goods and Services Tax in NZ

Hi I'm Geneveive.  I have three guest rental accommodation units that I rent out in Coromandel Town, NZ.  

I have just had to become G.S.T registered in NZ which is a 15% tax applied to all goods and services. This is a tax put in place to tax consumers not the provider.

I need to apply this GST tax to my prices and I'm wondering how I can go about putting the prices up for all my guests that have already booked?  

[Genevieve9]

Hi I'm Geneveive.  I have three guest rental accommodation units that I rent out in Coromandel Town, NZ.  

I have just had to become G.S.T registered in NZ which is a 15% tax applied to all goods and services. This is a tax put in place to tax consumers not the provider.

I need to apply this GST tax to my prices and I'm wondering how I can go about putting the prices up for all my guests that have already booked?  

[Genevieve9]

Hi I'm Geneveive.  I have three guest rental accommodation units that I rent out in Coromandel Town, NZ.  

I have just had to become G.S.T registered in NZ which is a 15% tax applied to all goods and services. This is a tax put in place to tax consumers not the provider.

I need to apply this GST tax to my prices and I'm wondering how I can go about putting the prices up for all my guests that have already booked?  

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

Hi - you cant change pricing for people who have already booked. The only way to do so is to send a special offer and hope they accept the increased price and your explanation. If they don't then you will have to cancel their bookings with the associated penalties hanging over you - in that instance I would contat AirBnB and ask for their support.

I am unclear as to whether this is something that you should have been including for these guests, and didnt. Or whether or not it is a new tax and being applied retrospectively.

If it's an exisitng tax, and you are now applying it (or have hit a threshold where you need to do so) I would question whether people who are already booked are included.

Perhaps a local tax expert can give you the answer to this question.

[Steve82]

Hi do we need to declare the income we receive as hosts of AirBNB in New Zealand.  Is there a certain amount you are allowed to earn before declaring?  Is it true you are allowed one boarder, does renting out a room with Airbnb classify as a boarder?  We are not GST registered.  We both have 9-5 jobs etc.  Really am not sure what we should be doing.  Would really appreciate advise.  Thanks in advance.

[Jordan5]

Hi There,

All short term accomodation is fully taxable with GST and income tax.

IRD will be doing an Audit soon.

Cheers

[Chris444]

http://www.ird.govt.nz/property/property-rental/managing-a-rental-property.html

"There is no GST on residential rental property. However, if you own an investment apartment with a management or service agreement in place, there may be GST implications to consider."

Suggest you contact IRD for clarification

[Jayne36]

Not correct at all, it is dependant on how much you make. Suggest you read this recent article: 

https://www2.deloitte.com/nz/en/pages/tax-alerts/articles/no-tax-holiday-for-short-term-rental-accom...

Apart from that there is resource consent, insurance, power, health & safety (if you are making money from your home, it becaomes a work place - all work places must have a haelth & safety policy) . .....

[Deb218]

hi,  AirBNB accommodation is not classed as residential rental property.  It is short term residential accommodation, and thus GST registered individuals have to pay GST on any earnings from their AIRBNB.  I was told this by our NZ accountant.   I also claim GST on relevant AIRBNB operating expenses (such as electricity,  internet,  washing power,  etc etc)

[Lara57]

Hi Steve, I wonder exactly the same, did you find out how that works?

thanks 

[Jayne36]

You are not Air BnB hosts - you are simply using AirBnB as a platform to list your business. It does not matter ifyou have jobs, liv there, dont live there - you are a business and as a business there are many compliance rules including, tax, consent, insurance. Pleas be careful and dont get caught out with fines and audits 🙂 

[Ros7]

I'm also wondering if GST is payable when, technically, no GST has been collected. (My business is registered). It's impossible to charge it on top of Airbnb's basic rates. Air BnB themselves should be paying GST on their commission - and are not currently. So really, why should we?!

[Jordan5]

Put your rates up; And add a cleaning fee that is large enough to cover commercial cleaners.

It is law to pay tax on earnings, especially short term accomodtion. You are essentially a hotel. Otherwise hotels shouls be exempt from tax also.

Apple does not pay tax in NZ does that mean you should  be able to by an Iphone tax free?

[Steve-And-Jenny0]

We are not registered for GST but I see Airbnb are taking it off our payout can we request them not to?

[Toni47]

You only need to register for GST if you will earn over $60k for your airbnb 

[Ritchie6]

We earn more than $60k for our airbnb so had to register for GST. When we did we got a big GST refund.

I understand that if we, in the future, sell the property the GST from the sale is paid to the IRD as expected, it will probably be more than the refund we got so lucky for the IRD.

However, I have also heard that if we stop doing airbnb with our property but continue to own it and therefore, by default, deregister from GST we have to pay the IRD back the GST which is then based on the market value at the time of the property.

In other words we'd have to find this money from somewhere to repay the refund we got from IRD in the first place. This repayment will probably be more than the original refund from IRD due to the expected rise in marketable value of the property.

Is this correct?

So, theoretically, it seems there are 2 ways the IRD get their money back and more.......!

If we have to pay the GST back when discontinuing airbnb but not selling the property it's a bit of a catch because we would be penalised heavily (I know we got the refund in the first place which is a bit of a windfall so in the end evrything is equal). Almost seems like we can't afford to stop airbnb if we want to live in the place ourselves!

[Bengi0]

So if you have to register for GST and make your home a business then can you claim back repairs and maintenance? Double glazing to make it warmer for guess? Electricity? Pay tv? Gas?