Including Vat and tourist tax

Dear Hosts,

I live in Malta (Europe) and if I am to operate a holiday accommodation lawfully I am required to add 7% vat and collect a further €0.50 tourist tax per person per night.
AirBnb does not have a system in place for me to input these details. I am confused as to how I am to include these in the price. Also the law states I should issue a receipt, but I know that AirBnb already sends a receipt to guests so how do I go about this? Should I issue a separate receipt excluding the Airbnb fee?

At the end of the year I have to declare income vs expenses in order to pay taxes (25%) on the profits.

Any experiences or suggestions?

You can include the tax in your total price quoted, that’s what I do. Some people seem to warn the guests that the tax is either paid in person in cash or done as adjustment,
I have to adjust for pet fees when it arises and that is uncomfortable enough, in that I am asking for more money, I don’t think I would be happy having to ask every guest to adjust the booking for the taxes

Get it in cash upon arrival. Make up your own receipts for the tax you collect.

What did you end up doing @travellinbug ?

Still have not started hosting as I am waiting for my license to be issued. As much as I am dreading exchanging cash, I will have to resort to hotel taxes being paid cash upon arrival since AirBnb have no way of including taxes as something separate from the nightly rate. This is a requirement by law that hotel taxes must be separate from the nightly rate. As for VAT, I will include this in the nightly rate.

So you will have your normal nightly rate, and then the hotel tax paid separately?

Also, if they add another person to sleep in the apartment and you tell them its an extra cost and to be paid in cash upon arrival, do you issue them a VAT receipt?

I’m going to inform the guests of the amount due in tax prior to arrival.
I will issue a receipt for the hotel tax myself. The receipt for the stay will be the receipt issued by AirBNB to the guest.

understood, however if there are other costs apart from the nightly cost (like an extra person would like to sleep, or late checkout etc) will you submit a receipt or no need to since its an additional price and does not fall under airbnb price ?

To be honest I never thought of that, can guests amend a booking half way through their stay through AirBnb? Perhaps someone more experienced can let us know.

If guests can amend a booking then there is no need to issue a receipt as I think AirBnb will take care of that. Otherwise, you will need to issue a receipt for the extra charge. As for hotel taxes, these need to be paid for the extra guests depending on the number of nights they stay.

AirBnb just replied stating that alterations are possible “Yes, that is possible via the alteration tool. The guest’s itinerary/receipt would be updated to reflect the edited cost. Hope that helps. Please see the following article for details: https://www.airbnb.ie/help/article/913/can-i-change-a-reservation-as-a-guest

Hello, I would like to rent our my property via airbnb and thought that all I have to do is sign up at airbnb.com, add pictures and description, and wait for guests to find me. I have MTA license, but I am not VAT registered, should I be? How did you know that you are required to add 7% VAT? (FYI: I know about the eco-contribution of 50 cents per guest). Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

As regards to Malta,

As far as I aware, you need to have a VAT number to have an MTA license. You can either be vat except and charge no vat (if you have a turnover of less than €14,000/year) or else opt to charge 7% Vat and be able to claim vat back from your purchases. Apart from the VAT number you need an eco contribution number which is also obtained from the VAT department. Unfortunately no one tells you these things, I just searched and asked around. Check with the VAT department and MTA.

I still have no official answer regarding how receipts should be issued to guests since it is AirBnb that sends the receipt. For sure you need to issue a receipt for the eco-contribution (using the VAT receipt book) since this is paid in cash on arrival.

2 Likes

I think Airbnb doesn’t care about collecting tax in any jurisdictions. We got a similar accommodation tax system in Tokyo and they charge 500 to 1000 yen a night for all lodgings. But anyone who does Airbnb or any sort of vacation rentals here doesn’t pay for it. And the law doesn’t enforce us to pay for it. Nor does Airbnb care care if we don’t pay these taxes.
Perhaps the laws are different in certain jurisdictions, which is pretty interesting to hear.