Tax office to crackdown on illegal property rentals

The tax office announced yesterday that it is going to target the digital black market this year, such as on line property rentals.This year, tax inspectors are going to be focusing on various areas but the most important is going to be the black market and within that remit comes illegal activity in the service and tourist sectors.
The principal aim is to crackdown on individuals, or businesses, using social media to rent holiday homes which do not declare any tax on their business activities. The tax office has made it clear that it is not going to be focusing on whether properties are being illegally rented out as holiday homes or not, but concentrating on whether the money earned is being declared and tax paid to the inland revenue.
Tax office sources said yesterday that it already has 200,000 websites in  its target and teams of inspectors are already trawling through them to make sure that the individuals or companies  are complying fully with their fiscal obligations.
According to the tax office, it will be concentrating on what it calls “double use software” which is specifically used to cover up and hide rentals and sales and manipulate company accounts in order to make false tax declarations.