Hungary's national tax authority has politely asked home owners who rent out their properties on Airbnb to pay the correct amount of tax on their earnings.
Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) staff has been instructed to offer support to Hungarian Airbnb hosts on correcting their tax returns rather than immediately applying sanctions.
According to MTI, Hungarians generated six billion HUF of revenue from homestays organized by online renter network Airbnb in 2015, data from the tax office in Ireland, where Airbnb is registered, show.
This is far more than the turnover indicated by tax returns submitted to Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV), the chairman of NAV said. Tax data from Ireland requested by NAV show Hungarian homeowners contracted with Airbnb used the service on 120,000 occasions, András Tállai said. Almost 4,500 Hungarians use the service for homestays at their properties, he added.
There are currently over 9,000 offers for Budapest on Airbnb, and in 2015 about 2.2 million guests preferred this type of service to traditional accommodations in the Hungarian capital.