tax withholding

[Paul364]

I have spoken with a few customer service reps at Airbnb in an attempt to reactivate tax withholding on my account. The reps are consistently perplexed by my question. Does anyone know how to make this happen? It was deactivated last year. Since then, I've been unable to have withholding reactivated. This would be a big help at tax time to have those funds already set aside. A while back I received an email from Airbnb requesting completion of the tax form which I did. Shouldn't this be a menu item on the Accounts page under Taxpayer information?

Thanks in advance.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

You are a 1099 contract employee.  They do not pay income taxes for you, you must do that on your own.  They may have been collecting sales and occcupancy taxes on your behalf.  

[Paul364]

Airbnb NEVER collected sales & occupancy taxes on my behalf. Airbnb has never paid any taxes on my behalf. I, the host, pay all taxes due. Receiving a 1099 does not make me a "contract employee" of Airbnb. 1099s are issued for a number of reasons not necessarily related to employment. Airbnb previously set aside 28% withholding for Federal taxes which was reported on the 1099 we receive annually. Now they do not set aside withholding. To do so would be very little effort on the part of Airbnb as it is largely automated once setup. At tax time, it would be very helpful to have that withholding "in the bank".

[Linda108]

@Paul364  I agree with @Alice-and-Jeff0 in terms of tax collection from Air BNB.  I am not aware of any type of withholding mechanism on the Air BNB platform.  

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

When you filled out the form for taxpayer information, the witholding stopped.  This is explained in this Help Center Article.  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/510/why-are-taxes-being-withheld-from-my-payouts

1099-Misc, which we receive from Airbnb,  is defined as Self-employment earnings.... https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/What-is-an-IRS-1099-Form-/INF14...

If you need to change taxpayer information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/417/how-do-i-change-my-taxpayer-information

Currently Airbnb does not collect Occupancy Tax for MA, but it does for many other areas of the World, so my apologies for suggesting that may be the circumstance.  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/653/in-what-areas-is-occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-...

In case you weren't aware of these taxes, here are the rules regarding rentals in Cambridge, MA  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/902/cambridge--ma.  Looks like you fall into the category of Tourist House, which gets assessed Occupancy Taxes 

Occupancy tax: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/654/what-is-occupancy-tax--do-i-need-to-collect-or-pay-it  "If occupancy taxes are being collected and remitted on your behalf, they'll be listed at the bottom of the page."  

Since Airbnb does not collect on your behalf, you can collect this yourself or through the Airbnb website: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/481/how-do-taxes-work-for-hosts

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1036/how-does-occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-airbnb-...

[Montana3]

Hi Alice and Jeff and Everyone,

I'm totally confused.

I started hosting iat the end of 2014 and never filled out the tax info; in doing so, it allowed airbnb to withold 28% for taxes. THEY sent me a 1099-K .. I cannot, however seem to find my 2015 or 2016 1099-K and need compies so I can get caught up.

heLp!

I appreciate you ion advance!

Montana

Deep in the Heart of Southtown

[Julie468]

Hi Montana!

Did you ever figure out how to take care of this?

I am in the exact same situation.

Appreciate any help you can give me!

Thanks, Julie

[Martin356]

Hey Paul I feel your pain.  I too remember setting something up on their website about them "withholding" money for me for tax time.  Now its the middle of the year and I can't find it anywhere.  I'm quite upset because I know I set this up and now its not here.  So I wonder where the money is that they collected.  But what a disappointment that they are no longer doing it.  Sucks!

[Luke-and-Avery0]

What if I have a 50/50 partner on the property? 

[Mark66]

we deal with it by having the other partner paid directly from airbnb, using their bank account or paypal information.  then you can split properties, to automatically pay the parter, after each transaction.  you can have them enter their social, and information directly in the airbnb software, so you don't hold that information at all.  then assign those payments directly to the tax payer, using the drop down menu at the top box.  it will show payees, and appropriately assigned tax payers.  then they are responsible for their own payments and their own taxes.  

[Arqui28]

I dont think this is true.  I just saw today that Airbnb is doing tax withholdings from my payout amounts in every booking

[Gregory-Kyle0]

Are these tax witholdings "returned" to you at year's end? Or paid to the tax authority automatically in the country your operate in? Not clear to me. Thanks!

[Eric4214]

Hi Paul,  I see this was back in 2017.  Were you ever able to get them to remove the 24% tax withholding on your account?  I am running into the same issue.  It’s been over two months and after talking with 2 managers, 4 people from the tax department and about 12 different support agents I still cannot get someone who is capable of turning the withholding off.  They’ve admitted I’ve provided all the correct info they need but don’t seem to know how to stop the withholdings.  Am I stuck having these withholdings as long as I continue to use Airbnb?  I have a lot of expenses associated with my properties and having 24% withheld could mean I lose money every month.  Any advice anyone has on how to get Airbnb to care about resolving this issue please please let me know.  

[Jay18]

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@Eric4214 wrote:

Hi Paul,  I see this was back in 2017.  Were you ever able to get them to remove the 24% tax withholding on your account?  I am running into the same issue.  It’s been over two months and after talking with 2 managers, 4 people from the tax department and about 12 different support agents I still cannot get someone who is capable of turning the withholding off.  They’ve admitted I’ve provided all the correct info they need but don’t seem to know how to stop the withholdings.  Am I stuck having these withholdings as long as I continue to use Airbnb?  I have a lot of expenses associated with my properties and having 24% withheld could mean I lose money every month.  Any advice anyone has on how to get Airbnb to care about resolving this issue please please let me know.  

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Greetings Eric4214 - Your comment/question "Any advice anyone has on how to get Airbnb to care about resolving this issue please please let me know." is easy to address. AirBnB DOES NOT CARE. Never has, never will. AirBnB cares about one thing: MONEY. Any problem they create for users by their actions are problems for their users. In the end, we gave up hosting on AirBnB altogether. Even though the company I worked for owned an 8-room B&B, and managed other properties, ALL outside of the US (and the company has no US nexus, not even a telephone number or PO box), AirBnB still withheld 24% on payouts in 2017 and 2018. The company is still working to recover over $4,000 AirBnB withheld from its earnings. AirBnB's only offer of help has been to state they would provide a tax form. None for 2017 (despite them saying they would), but did provide one for 2018. So only halfway there.

[Sebastian249]

Hi ! did anyone with this issue get their money back? all of a sudden I just started having the same situation (for the payout of some reservations)