Will Revenue find out if I'm earning income as a host with Airbnb?

The short answer is that they probably already know!

Airbnb have said on numerous occasions that they share details of all of their hosts in Ireland with the Revenue Commissioners meaning they have an extensive database of who is earning income from renting out their property.

Revenue regularly cross check this database with the income reported by these hosts through their tax returns each year. If Revenue find that someone exists on the Airbnb database who has not yet filed a tax return they will usually write to them and query why they have not returned the income.

If they find that the host has not declared the income correctly they can apply interest and penalties to the underpaid taxes.

Our advice to any Airbnb host is to ensure that all of your taxes are kept up to date as failure to do so can lead to a very expensive bill from Revenue!

Download our Airbnb guide here for more.
 

Date published 4 Sep 2019

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.