The tourism sector in Italy is increasingly aimed at the success of hotel facilities. The novelty lies in the fact that B & Bs, holiday homes and rentals increasingly use home sharing, first of all the Airbnb platform. It is an increasingly important type that attracts people, perhaps those who intend to earn from time to time or those who want to find their own way at an entrepreneurial level. Here’s how you manage a business on AIRBNB. How to manage Airbnb accounting in Italy?
AIRBNB MANAGEMENT: ENTREPRENEURIAL OR OCCASIONAL ACTIVITY?
For the purposes of the obligation to open the VAT number, it is crucial to understand if the host is an entrepreneur or is only a private citizen who makes his assets available to generate an annuity. One of the necessary but not sufficient elements for the subjective VAT requirement to be found is therefore the exercise of a professionally carried out activity. For the purposes of the civil code and also for VAT purposes (2182 of the Italian Civil Code and art. 4 of Presidential Decree 633 of 1972), business operations require, in fact, that the commercial activity is carried out in a habitual or continuous and professional and not occasional way even if it is a second (non-exclusive) activity. Based on Italian internal regulations, in order for a tourist rental to become a business, it is necessary to verify not only the requirement of continuity in carrying out the economic activity, but that of the adoption of an organization in the form of a business.
Once it is ascertained that the activity carried out is subject to VAT, it is necessary to clarify the tax regime applicable to the commercial activity exercised.
AIRBNB MANAGEMENT: VAT NUMBER AND ACTIVITY CODE OPENING
The Italian law establishes that “on the basis of the general VAT principles set out in the Presidential Decree October 26, 1972, n. 633, no tax obligations will be determined instantly if the activity described is carried out in a non-entrepreneurial way, but it will be rather attributable to the typical case of the property leasing contract ” It seems that the subjects determined to make a certain number of apartments available to users must necessarily operate as professional entrepreneurs. Although the limit of rooms and apartments may vary depending on the region, everyone is obliged to open the VAT number, within 30 days of the start of their business. You must also make the presentation of the SCIA at the one-stop shop for productive activities (SUAP) of your municipality.
What has just been said shows how much the activity of tourist leasing or extra-hotel service needs the VAT number with the appropriate activity code. As we have already mentioned, the fundamental distinction that affects the application of VAT and therefore also in the choice of the ATECO code is whether it is a simple rental although organized in the form of a business or the provision of extra-hotel services . In the first case, the ATECO code to be used to open the VAT number is 68.20.01 “Real estate rental of own or leased property (rent)”. In the second case, the ATECO code to be used for the opening of the VAT number is 55.20.51 “Renting activities for short stays, holiday homes, bed and breakfasts, residences”. It is also necessary to highlight how important it is to indicate data about the structure with consequent communication for attendance to the public security authority through the web lodged portal, mandatory communication for all contracts of less than 30 days, which have no registration obligation.
TAXES
To understand therefore what type of taxation is applied, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics of the activity actually carried out to classify it in one of the income categories provided for by the Consolidated Income Tax Act (TUIR). The categories potentially concerned are land income (art.36 of the TUIR), business income (art.55 of the TUIR) and various incomes (art.67, paragraph 1, letter i) of the TUIR). The classification as building income, however, allows access to the dry coupon with an ordinary rate set at 21%, replacing also the other indirect taxes which turn out to be almost always the most convenient. The classification of the activity carried out as an entrepreneurial activity will instead determine a different treatment which, depending on whether it is carried out with or without a VAT number, determines the production of business income or different income. The exercise of an occasional business activity determines the classification as different income of the income received and to determine the income to be taxed, the fees for the housing services received must be net of the expenses related to their production (art.67, paragraph 1, letter i) and art. 71, paragraph 2, of the TUIR).