young people, stricter tax rules for property owners type of Airbnb is planned by the government along with the time cutters launched in the operation of short-term rentals.
The purpose of the new government interventions is to deal with the housing crisis and contain rental market prices.
The scenarios for Airbnb
According to the plan, the final decisions on the type and size of the changes are expected to be made in the fall, when there is an image of the impact of the tax measures activated at the beginning of the year.
The reports say that the scenarios on the table include expanding the number of short-term rental owners who need to start a business, and establishing the time, numerical and geographic restrictions on short-term rentals under the provision that has already been voted by Parliament and stipulates that “by joint decision of the ministers of National Economy and Finance, Development and Tourism, for reasons related to protection of residence, geographic areas can be defined where the restrictions on the availability of real estate for the short-term rent apply ».
In this context, the following are considered:
1. One property per VAT number for natural persons.
This means that natural persons are not allowed to make short-term rentals of two or more properties.
Those who operate at least two properties will be considered entrepreneurs subject to VAT and fees
insurance contribution and service charge. Now, to be considered a professional property owner and start a business, you must have three or more short-term rental properties.
2. Time limit.
The rental of each property shall not exceed 90 days per calendar year and for islands with less than 10,000 inhabitants 60 days per calendar year. Exceeding the duration is allowed if the total income of the lessee or sublessor, from all assets available for lease or sublease, does not exceed 12,000 euros during the relevant tax year . Number of properties per municipality. The imposition of a ceiling on the number of properties to be rented in the short term per municipality is considered, with the competent actors stating that the needs for housing, the amount of rent, the number of properties that available for short-term rental must be recorded in each region.
3. Tax incentives
On the tax front, in addition to expanding the number of short-term rental owners who need to start a business, tax incentives such as income tax reductions for “transferring” housing from short term to long term rentals are considered.
What is true now?
Based on the short-term rental regime effective from 1 January 2024:
· Natural persons with three or more properties on short-term lease are required to start a business by setting up sole proprietorships and paying the corresponding insurance contribution, the their gross income is subject to VAT of 13% while they are taxed based on presumptions. of freelancers and self-employed.
· A limit of 60 days is placed on the duration of a lease to be considered short term.
· Once they are available for short-term rental, all apartments in an apartment building or residential complex will be considered tourist accommodation and must have the corresponding permit.
· All short-term rentals are subject to a “climate resilience fee” of 0.5 to 10 euros per day.
· The fine for non-registration in the Short-Term Rental Real Estate Register is set, each tax year, at 50% of the gross income of the previous tax year and a minimum of 5,000 euros.
Tax audit
As the government considers new interventions in the short-term rental market, AADE will launch a barrage of cross-checks on declarations showing income from Airbnb-style properties, as well as checks on property owners’ bank accounts and credit cards.
The checks will begin when the curtain falls on the tax declarations of the year 2023 and the information written in the E1 and E2 forms will be checked, while at the same time they will be checked on the information already announced by the AADE by the operating companies on the platforms of short-term leases. It is noted that AADE has signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoU) with the platforms Airbnb, Booking and Vrbo (Expedia) and the new agreement allows AADE to fully ensure the recognition of accommodation managers for compliance and control objectives.
Deposit checks to card
Controls can be multi-layered
Initially, the goal is to identify taxpayers who hide from the Tax Office the real income from short-term leases or who rent and have not registered on the digital platform, i.e. they do not have a Real Estate Registry Number .
This will then be cross-referenced with information reported on short-term rental platforms to identify those who have committed formal violations and are not registered in the Registry, etc. In addition to checking tax returns with data on international platforms, the movements of the bank accounts of the owners of specific assets, as well as the movements of credit cards, electronic wallets, prepaid cards , etc., can also be analyzed simultaneously.
The checks are not limited to the accounts they have in Greek banks, but will also look for data from banks abroad, especially from many countries where the tax authorities cooperate.