Airbnb required to disclose rental owners' income to tax authorities

Housing rental platforms such as Airbnb will be forced to inform the tax authorities how much money Belgian individuals make from renting their property via their sites from 2022.

According to reports published in the Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard newspapers on Thursday, platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com will have to explicitly inform all renters of their "tax and social obligations" from next year.

These companies will also be obliged to have a Belgian representative who will have to provide renters each year with a summary of the amounts they have collected. This document will then have to be forwarded to the tax authorities.

Of the 15,000 individuals in Belgium who use AirBnb to rent out a home, not all report the income generated to the tax authorities. And it's hard for the administration to control because Airbnb gives little information.

Federal finance minister Vincent Van Peteghem wants to have legislation put in place which will impose a series of obligations on rental platforms "that will allow for more transparency".