Tax authorities to investigate Airbnb flat rentals in Germany

BERLIN - German authorities want to investigate thousands of apartment listings on the US online market place Airbnb on suspicion of tax evasion, German media reported on Friday.

According to the reports, the Bonn-based Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) has sent a corresponding request to the European headquarters of Airbnb in Ireland.

In the letter, the BZSt is demanding the release of data on earnings generated through online letting in order to be able to assess whether such income was accounted for properly in annual tax returns.

The regional Hamburg Tax Office, which first launched the initiative, told the magazine Wirtschaftswoche on Friday that the request was part of "diverse ongoing investigations" to ensure the correct taxation of income from short-term tourist rentals.

The latest move also received the backing of the federal ministry of finance.

Thomas Eigenthaler, the president of the German Tax Union, welcomed the development on Friday as an important step to reducing the incidence of tax fraud and illegal lettings practices.

Eigenthaler urged German tax authorities to prepare for the receipt of "masses of data" from Airbnb in order to ensure that the information could be assessed "swiftly".

Airbnb is one of the world's largest market places for short-term lets with more than 4 million listings in 190 countries. The US-based company has been accused of reducing the availability of housing stock for local inhabitants as opposed to tourists and failing to hold its users accountable for tax fraud.