Airbnb to hand over letting details to ATO

The ATO are set to seize the personal finance data of more than 200,000 Airbnb homeowners in an attempt to crackdown on tax avoidance.

"Airbnb is currently under legal notice by the Australian Taxation Office to share information concerning your hosting activity from the period from 1 January to 30 June 2019," an email sent out to Australian members of Airbnb.

The move comes after the ATO suggested they believe there are a number of people not reporting their income. 

“We believe some people using sharing-economy platforms are failing to report their income, ­either on purpose or because they assume their level of activity constitutes a hobby and doesn’t require reporting,” the ATO advised.

“We also seek to identify taxpayers who use sharing-economy rental platforms as a way to disguise their property as being genuinely available for rent by listing the property but not responding to enquiries.”

Names, addresses and emails are all expected to be given to the ATO, as well as personal finance such as online banking, payments, booking dates and gross income.

The information gathered will start from the financial years 2016-17 and run to the current financial year.

Airbnb have recently announced the new draft rules for their hosts and guests which includes an online list of banned members, as well as a three strikes and you're banned policy.