Airbnb: Hidden income tax safari – New round of crossings

Income from short-term leases acquired in 2025 is being targeted by the tax inspection mechanism, with the IAPR preparing a new round of cross-checks which will run in the last quarter of the year. The focus will be on Airbnb property owners and managers with the aim of detecting discrepancies in the amounts recorded on digital platforms and income declared to the tax office.

The checks will be carried out on the basis of data sent by Airbnb, Booking and VRBO. The data will be compared with the Short-Term Residence Declarations submitted to the IAPR, but also with the amounts shown in the tax returns.

According to IAPR data, 2,466,075 Short-Term Residence Declarations were submitted in 2025, with declared rents reaching €973,712 million, up from €888,851 million in 2024, an increase of approximately 10%.

The "bells"
Cross-checks are not limited to identifying undeclared income. Cases of failure to submit or inaccurate Short-Term Residence Declarations, late declarations, as well as properties that have not been entered in the Register of Short-Term Residences are also targeted, with offenders facing "bells".

In particular:

– Failure to submit or incorrect Short-Term Residence Declaration: A fine equal to twice the rent as displayed on the digital platform shall be imposed. An independent administrative fine of EUR 100 is provided for late declaration. Fines are imposed on the manager and, if it does not appear that he is a sublessor or a third party, they are imposed on the owner or usufructuary of the property.

– Non-registration in the Register of Short-Term Real Estate: The fine per year is 50% the gross revenue of the tax year in which the offence is committed and may not be less than EUR 5 000. In the event of a repeated infringement within one year of the imposition of the fine, the amount shall be doubled, while for each subsequent infringement it shall be quadrupled.

 Crossovers
The cross-checks carried out by the AADE in 2025 identified 24 383 unique TINs of natural persons with undeclared income from short-term leases, without any business activity related to tourist accommodation. The cross-check covered the tax years 2020, 2021 and 2022 and was carried out using data from Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO.

For declared income differences of more than 500 euros, 6,222 TINs were identified for 2020, 10,724 for 2021 and 17,525 for 2022, with taxpayers being required to submit amended income tax returns. The number of 24,383 concerns unique TINs, as the same taxpayer can appear in more than one year.

At the same time, 1,545 natural persons who had earned income from three or more short-term rental properties in 2024 or acquired a third active Real Estate Registration Number (AMA) from 2024 onwards were caught in the audit net.

Of these, 1 017 had not started business and 528 had not declared the planned SMRs for short-term leases. In addition, 12,145 short-term rental properties were identified without a Property Registration Number or with an invalid AMA and were withdrawn from Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO.

Source: insider.gr