Airbnb will offer a series of new tools and measures to help make tax simple for hosts as applicable regulations require the company to share data.
Airbnb, in line with well-established legal principles, will share with Sars earnings information for a cross-section of hosts with listings in South Africa that were active on the platform during the period January 1, 2019 to March 31 2021.
"All information will be shared securely with Sars in accordance with applicable regulations," Airbnb said.
Airbnb said it has reached agreements with a number of tax authorities around the world and has worked with Sars to ensure a smooth facilitation of this activity.
"In South Africa, Airbnb offers ongoing support to hosts, with dedicated emails including information to help hosts better understand their tax obligations, and a dedicated South African Tax Hub, which provides additional resources including webinars and articles that address tax-specific topics.
“Airbnb has also partnered with tax platform, TaxTim, to offer Hosts a discount on their first tax return using the service," an Airbnb spokesperson said.
Airbnb wants to work collaboratively with Sars, rolling out tools and measures to make it easy for hosts to pay their fair share of tax.
"The Airbnb model boosted the South Africa economy by more than R8.7-billion in direct economic impact in 2018, providing hosts the opportunity to earn extra income and communities a way to get their economies running again," the spokesperson added.
To further help hosts and to strengthen local communities, Airbnb supports fair and sensible data-sharing frameworks on tax to ensure local communities share in the benefits of tourism, increase transparency for hosts, and reduce the burden of tax administration for governments.
Airbnb has also done this in Denmark, Estonia, Spain and Ireland.