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Hi fellow hosts, I wanted to get some advice from hosts facing the same tax issue as me. Although I am in the UK, this forum seems to be mostly US based hosts.
I’m not sure what to do with my airbnb account. I’ve been a host for 6 years. I have two guest rooms listed on airbnb. I’m in a popular tourist town & live very close to the University. My listings tend to be busy enough.
The UK government have implented tax legislation. Hosts with listings in the UK have to supply their National insurance for tax reasons. Unfortunately, without going into too much detail, I can’t add mine to my account. I saw the accountant & got myself a Unique tax reference No. I was advised I could use that by both my accountant & airbnb, but when it comes down to it, it won’t work. It has to be the National Insurance number. What I want to know is, will the really follow through on the threats out withholding payments if I continue to hold back on adding the details they require? Its very simple, I can’t add the details they are asking for. Where can I go from here? I’m not sure what my options are going forward.
I hope this makes sense, I’m a little anxious, understandly. I think what is also a challenge, is Airbnb themselves don’t seem to know what will happen regarding the issues. I’ve talked to them about this twice & were incredibly vauge. They didnt seem to know themselves. I got the impression this is all new to them, too.
I look forward to hearing back from you lovely people!
Could you clarify why you’re unable to meet Airbnb’s payment requirements? I’m curious to understand how this approach would work within their policies.
Yes, that is likely. When hosts in places where new licensing or tax requirements are brought in can’t produce the info Airbnb says they now require, they usually don’t get paid until they comply.
Do you need to be the person who owns the Airbnb account?
As an individual I mean.
I set my account to be owned by my UK company.
So while I am a UK (dual) Citizen with a NI number, Airbnb has never asked me for this number. They did ask for my UK VAT ID though.
Now, I am not charged VAT on listings it seems, though I don’t have UK property myself now at this point, only as a co-host.
The point being - Consider asking someone ELSE to host for you, OR, set a Company to be the account owner - as then Airbnb only needs the Companies House registration number, and your VAT and TAX IDs from HMRC. It doesn’t need a NI AFAIK, only if you are the account owner as an individual. I am also unsure how getting paid works if you are not an account owner. You MAY need a NI to get paid to your personal account, but certainly not if you have a company owning the account, and getting paid to the company account.
Incidentally, I use Wise for my company account. No ongoing account fees, and way easier to deal with than a UK bank if you wanted to set it up to solve your issue. If so ask me and I can give a referral code for some benefit I think. But the focus is not so much the bank account as: ‘Change the account owner entity’ for Airbnb as this solves several problems I think.
Just came here to say that discussions like this (despite having zero relevance to me lol) are so refreshing. I get so tired of the standard bitching about airbnb not giving a host a hall pass when they mess themselves up in a booking…
Hi. In the UK there are certain condtions regarding how much you can work/earn depending on you circumstances, what your income is if or claim certain benefits. They are very strict.
If I add the information they are asking for, it will affect with my primary income. I get the impression Aribnb don’t want to be on hosts for the information. They are risking losing good hosts.
You don’t seem to understand that Airbnb is required by various jurisdictions to provide this information to the tax department and withhold and submit taxes.
If you are running a business, which as a host you are, you need to report your income and whether that results in taxes you need to pay, or you’ll get that money back because with expense deductions you are under an income threshhold, will depend on your individual circumstances.
There are certainly people everywhere who run cash only, under the table businesses of various kinds that the govt. can’t keep track of, but you can’t do that through a listing platform like Airbnb.
You all seem very judgmental. Who said anything about fraud? Most government’s vare nothing for the working man, they want to keep him down whilst making money off him. Yall need to chill the F out!
I’m also in the UK. The new UK legislation is to ensure that everyone accurately pays the correct income tax on all their income because the government believes that not everyone earning money through Airbnb actually does submit annual tax returns. So they to stop this ‘evasion’ they have now required Airbnb and other platforms to provide all the data on UK payouts directly to them as and when asked to do so. So if you do not provide a national insurance number, they cannot make a payout, because to do so contravenes the new legal requirements on them.
And just in case you thought that might be it, the UK government is also planning to bring in a registration process before the end of 2025, which may well mean that Airbnb won’t be able to list properties that are not ‘officially registered’. I have no idea how that will work with renting out rooms within a house etc and I doubt they know either…
The UTR is a red herring - you need it to register with HMRC for completing self assessment tax returns and other online services but nothing else so far as I can tell. The National Insurance Number is what they want because that is what ties all an individual’s PAYE income, benefits, credits, allowances, and tax return details in one place.
You said if you provide the tax information, it will affect the total income threshhold you have, and your benefits, etc. are based on that.
This is not unique to the UK- it’s like that pretty much everywhere. For instance, how much one has to pay in Canada for health care is based on income. If you are below the poverty line, you pay nothing, and it goes up accordingly.
Airbnb is legally required to collect this info.
And Airbnb doesn’t really care if lose good hosts. There are far more listings than guests to fill them.
You are right, you didn’t say you would refuse to provide the info (in which case you won’t get paid), but if you haven’t been reporting your rental income up til now, that is, in fact, illegal, so that’s what people were referring to as fraud. And I’m sure lots, if not most people accept cash for some things they might do or offer, and not report the income- it’s not a matter of being a bad person, it’s a matter of resigning yourself to the fact that you can’t get away with that if you want to run a visible business.
If they cannot provide the information they get big fines or can get shut down.
And if they lose you as a host, who cares there are plenty of other hosts around.
Airbnb has to obey the law, just as we do, but more so in its case as a high profile company.
If laws change regarding any STR issues, Airbnb has to react accordingly.
The company also has its image to protect. A host who is evading paying tax could (not will) be flying under the radar in other ways such as not having STR insurance, not having a proper business license, not being compliant with local fire regulations and so on.
HostKat - Not all of us here are so judgmental. Apologies for your experience, and I also wish there was less negative energy, and more support for hosts here sometimes. So… I support you, and see your query as entirely valid. Nobody should be alleging you are up to no good, and regardless this is EXACTLY the sort of place we should all be helping support improving the hosting experience, including being smart with regards to tax. It is a very complex area as I am discovering from my other posts here - and I am still not at the bottom of it.
So hope you are having a great day, and I look forward to any other queries or comments you may post here in future
