Taxes and payouts

[Desmond28]

I am a property manger and set the payouts to go directly to the owner's bank account. Each owner has their own HST (Tax number), however the tax payout has been going to my default PayPal and not their bank account. I can't seem to be able to switch this online. Has anyone faced this issue and got it changed? 

[Quincy]

Hi there @Desmond28, not sure, but have you spoken with the support team? Perhaps they might know more about this. 

[Desmond28]

Hi Quincy, unfortunately I did call the customer support and they didn't really understand the issue. I thought with the new tax (GST) rules in Canada this would get fixed but its still a problem. 

[Barnaby2]

Hi @Desmond28, wondering if you ever got an answer on this?   

I'm an owner working with a property manager such as yourself, having the other side of the problem.  My property manager leaves the HST field blank so Airbnb auto-collects and will remits on our behalf.  However,  I still need to file HST being registered, and not clear what I need to do, defaulting to just filing as not owing anything, but wonder if CRA will not accept this.

[Helen3]

Hello @Barnaby2 

Just checked your profile and you don't seem to have any listings attached to it.

I can only assume you let your property manager set up your listing under their profile and you have chosen not to be added as a cohost.

Sorry I can't answer your question but wonder if it's because the listing isn't set up under your profile?

[Barnaby2]

Hi @Helen3 , yes our property manager has the listings under them.   They manage multiple listings for various owners, who like myself are entirely hands-off (except for receiving payments directly from Airbnb).

They have only gotten the response from Airbnb customer service to "contact our tax authority".

As Airbnb as only started the auto-collection of HST tax in Canada as of July, and owners are now filing HST remittances to the government this month, I suspect there will be many folks like myself in the same boat (or in the same boat as @Desmond28).   In my small tourist destination in Ontario, there are at least 150 properties managed by property managers (per AirDNA), so probably thousands across Canada.

[Helen3]

Yes you can still be hands off yet retain access to your listing by being added as a co-host so you can easily understand what booking you have, how much income you are making (and is projected) .

You don't need to get involved in anything else @Barnaby2 

Many property owners prefer this reassurance but I appreciate others like yourself may not.

[Barnaby2]

@Helen3  Thanks for sharing, I'm good with understanding my bookings and income forecasts etc working with my property manager. 

This HST problem, however, might have a significant impact to my income, or look for other non-Airbnb options.  Do you have any insight to my specific problem or can you suggest how to get a better response from Airbnb given customer service has not been helpful?