2019-02-12 Attachment 1 to Item 7 - Short Term Accom Online Platform Issues Paper

7.3.3     Affiliation with other platforms
Airbnb is actively assisting and supporting hosts in aspects of tax compliance and safety. For
example, Airbnb and Quickbooks have partnered to help Queensland hosts’ taxation obligations and
management. The partnership offers a financial incentivisation for hosts to better manage their tax
obligations, with Quickbooks offering a 70% discount exclusively for hosts to acquire the Quickbooks
App.


7.4       Australian Tax Office
The ATO provides information on its website about the sharing economy and tax, advising that if
goods or services are provided through a sharing economy platform, such as Airbnb, it should be
considered how income tax, GST and any other tax may apply to the earnings. ATO clarifies that
when all or part of a residential house or unit is rented out through a shared economy website or
app, such as Stayz or Airbnb, that:
    All records of income earned and declared in the income tax return should be kept,
    All records of expenses claimed as deductions should be kept,
    And there is no need to pay GST on amounts of residential rent earned.
    There are different income tax and GST obligations if you are carrying on an enterprises renting
     out commercial residential premises.

In August 2018 the ATO released a statement advising that they are launching an extensive data-
matching program to identify taxpayers receiving income from short term rentals, and that
information from online platform sharing sites for approximately 190,000 Australians will be
examined to identify taxpayers who have left out rental income and over-claimed deductions.

The statement acknowledged the growth in availability of short stay rentals due to online platform
providers, and clarified that the ATO will match data provided by online rental platforms and their
financial institutions against ATO records to identify taxpayers not meeting their registration,
reporting, lodgement, or payment obligations when renting out property on a short term basis. The
data collected will include income received per listing as well as listing dates, enquiry and booking
rates, price charged or quoted per night and other information.



8.        Response, Recourse and Action – Noosa Council
This paper outlines a variety of actionable response opportunities for Council, underpinned by a
suggested set of guiding principles, outlined in section 9.1. Council’s response should have a strong
foundation in information and data gathering that is useable and meaningful, furthered by actions
that consider the legal, planning, social and economic aspects of this issue.


8.1       Administration and Management of Responsive Actions
The sections below outline a variety of potential responsive actions available to Council, with the
successful and effective implementation of such actions requiring appropriate resourcing to ensure
dedicated oversight, measurement of performance via key performance indicators and operational
tasks such as managing a register of short-term letting properties, enforcing any new local laws or
keeping up to date with technology changes.




Short Term Accommodation - Online Platform Response Issues Paper                              Page 32