About time! Airbnb agrees to pay £1.8m more tax in the UK after HMRC investigation

HMRC hit Airbnb UK with an extra £1.8 million tax bill last year to add to the £1m it had already paid.

The home-sharing platform settled up after a request from HMRC following two years of contact with the tax office, according to the firm’s accounts.

These showed that Airbnb paid £1.1 million in tax in the year to December 2019, compared to £146,000 in 2018, while profits also rose sharply over the year to £5.6 million from £455,000.

The company has faced pressure worldwide to ensure that its hosts pay the appropriate taxes, and has now promised to partner with HMRC and share data on hosts’ earnings for 2017/18 and 2018/19.

HMRC is expected to address any issues over their payments in 2021/2022.

Tax owed

“We have taken steps in HMRC to consider sectors, such as short-term property letting, where we may not be collecting the full amount of tax owed,” HMRC told Reuters.

“We appreciate this is a rapidly evolving sector and we are working in partnership with companies, such as Airbnb, to address the tax consequences of these changes with a commitment to creating a level playing field for all.”

Earlier this month Airbnb launched its new City Portal to respond to data-sharing requests from cities around the globe by giving them more efficient access to data about listings – including whether or not they’re complying with laws.

And it has finally filed its IPO paperwork with the securities and exchange commission in readiness for a much-anticipated initial public offering.

Airbnb had planned to prepare to go public in March but halted plans when coronavirus hit. The company was valued at $18 billion at its last funding round in April, down on the previous 2017 valuation of $31 billion.

Airbnb also goes to great lengths online to ensure landlords pay their tax.

Read more Airbnb stories.

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