Latest / STR Unpacked / Tax, Planning, Enforcement
Transcript
- Ben: Good morning and welcome back to your short term rental bulletin after three weeks. So I took three weeks off, but Europe did not, and three countries moved on short term rentals while I was away, and each one has reached for a different lever. So here's what you've missed. Spain first. Because it's really one story in three different parts. So let us separate it out. Part one in May, the Supreme Court struck down the National Rental Registry. Ruling that Madrid never had the power to build a registry on top of the regional ones. That ruling took legal effect on the 8th of June when it was published in the official Gazette. Now, your regional license still stands, the national number does not. So part two. Thousands of owners paid registry fees for a registration that's now been declared illegal. So a month on, there's still no mechanism to claim that money back. Part three. On the 29th of June, the government announced its response a decree planning for this month's raising of VAT on tourist lets to 21%. Right now, plainlets are exempt and lets with services pay 10%. The same package regulates seasonal and room by room rentals. One catch the government's last hounding decree was voted down in Congress. So this one needs the votes that it didn't have in April. So Spain's lost the registry lever and reached for a tax lever instead. So going slightly further north into Ireland, ⁓ this one is about planning. So on the 16th of June, the cabinet approved the short term letting bill from De Sender. From anyone letting stays up to 21 nights registers with Faltay Island, and the new planning permissions in any city or town over 20,000 people will generally be refused. The Housing Minister has called it the strictest law in Europe. The data behind it is just under 29,000 short term rentals in the country, with a third of an in Dublin. Worth noting, Ireland missed the EU's own May deadline for the register, and December still depends on the bill passing. So back down south again to Italy. No new rules at all, but Italy has set tax rules in January. Three or more properties now means a VAT number. And this summer it switched on that inform enforcement. The tax agency is cross-referencing guest registration platforms, data, electronic payments and questionnaires already, landing with hosts across the country. So to recap, we got tax in Spain, planning in Ireland, enforcement ⁓ in Italy, three levers, one direction. The compliance bar is rising everywhere and it's coming through different doors. So knowing which door your market uses is now the job. Thank you for watching and I'll see you tomorrow.