Privacy policy of AIRBNB

[Benedict4]

I have recently read in the local newspapers that the Dutch branch of AIRBNB sent all the data of the hosts in my country to my country's tax authorities. I though it can never happen.  I am locataed in Hungary. I wonder if it happanes in other countries too?

[Andrea9]

@Benedict4

Correction. Airbnb is not sending all host data to the tax authorities. That would be violating the country's privacy policies.

They have automatically been collecting the tourist taxes on all bookings (at least of Amsterdam), so even from bookings of the dishonest or naeiv hosts will still generate this tax. For the rest agreements have been made to enforce existing regulation on maximum no. of allowed booked days for apartments and some time later for the also already existing regulation on max. no. of 4 guests allowed.

We legally operating hosts greatly welcome this.

The city authorities themselves are using a lot of the generated income to comb through the website for illegally operating listings,

and complaints by neighbors are taken very seriously and checked.

But Airbnb will not disclose host details to an authority unless a court document has been issued for a certain host to do this.

Still, whatever your country's tax rulings are, it's still a slippery slope to do your business and evade tax...

[Benedict4]

Dear Andrea,

Thanks for your reply. I have to apologize, because I have recalled wrongly which branch of AIRBN sent the data to the Hungarian tax authorities. It was Ireland, not the Netherlands. Maybe the center of European operations is in Ireland.  I am wondering if AIRBNB applies different privacy and other policies in different countries.

Maybe I misunderstand something. You are saying that AIRNB is sending the money to the local tax authorities the tourist taxes automatically on behalf of every single hosts? In Hungary the host has to pay this after every single guest/night. If a host is honest and paying this tax and AIRBNB is paying too to the tax authorities, they receive double income regarding the tourist tax of the same property. How this situation is handled?

I never heard that AIRBNB sending any money to the Hungarian tax authorities, but maybe I am wrong.

[Andrea9]

@Benedict4

I didn't say anything about Hungary because I have no knowledge about any agreements between Airbnb and Hungary.

Airbnb makes agreements with those cities, states, countries that pressure them enough.

So in my example of Amsterdam (maybe more cities in the Netherlands - I'm not sure) - the city was losing out on tourist taxes (5%of each booking) of all the listings owned by hosts who wrongly hadn't registered by law with the proper city dept. about this. Because, as you say, only part of the hosts honestly deduct and pay these.

The city of Amsterdam was able to see that there were thousands of rooms and apartments being offered on the Airbnb map, while the amount they were collecting did not really add up. So they pressured Airbnb into collecting these taxes directly and paying them to the city. This information was passed on to the hosts and from the moment it was implemented, hosts did not collect them themselves. 

On the airbnb host account payment pages there is an overview incl. how much Airbnb collects for my bookings, and I submit that together with my 'hotel register' and booking confirmations for the city to check. Of course, if I get a booking through another channel, I have to charge the taxes myself.

For the city, that's perfect because they get their money even from all the illegally non-registered listings. Perfect for me, because it saves me a hell of a lot of administration. 

So to answer your question, no there is no double collection by Airbnb and the hosts.

I have also seen on different forums that many states in the US even have Airbnb collect other taxes too.

But this is always after agreement between Airbnb and that state.

Many cities who have been overrun with Airbnb listings such as SF, NY, Barcelona, London, and I think Paris too, have been consulting with Amsterdam to discuss how to negociate as a combined force together and get Airbnb to adapt their services and website to respect and serve local regulations. 

You could try to contact your local Facebook group or local Community Center group to ask more information about what's going on in your country.

Maybe you already posted this in your local CC, I just entered the conversation to set the Netherlands information right 🙂

[Lesley35]

Hello. I'm having trouble finding the way to add occupancy taxes to my listings (in Philadelphia)

which I want Airbnb to collect and send to proper channels.

I've read the instructions, called to ask in person and simply cannot go beyond

Click Inbox, click Special Offer (after the payment due is listed).

Nothing comes up to say add occupancy taxes of say 8.5 % (mine) or .....

I was told that a Change/Cancel box could be opened after someone has Instant Booked but again when I do this I come up short...

Might you or anyone else out there help me?
THANKS a lot.

Lesley

[David126]

ABB collect taxes in some areas automatically, note it may not be all of the taxes.

There is no way of you setting what you want but if you have taxes not collected by ABB you can build them into your price.