Airbnb likely to pay Amsterdam €5.5 million in taxes

Airbnb expects to pay about 5.5 million euros in tourist tax to the city of Amsterdam this year. This is the result of a tax treaty made between the city and the tourist housing website, the company announced today. From February 1st of this year, Airbnb has to pay 5 percent tourist tax for every night spent in the capital, according to the Telegraaf. Before the tax treaty, this tax had to be paid by the person renting out the room themselves. This rarely happened due to a lack of control. "Amsterdam is the perfect example of how a business like Airbnb can work together with cities to help their citizens meet local regulations", Patrick Robinson, head of Public Policy at Airbnb, said to the newspaper. "In the rest of the world we want to take the leadership role on this issue and help ensure that governments receive this important source of income." At this time between 9 and 10 thousand rooms and apartments are available to rent to holiday goers in Amsterdam. According to the newspaper, this is legal as long as it is not rented to more than four people per night and no longer than six weeks per year. Last year the capital received a total of some 48 million euros in tourist tax, most of which came from tourists staying in luxury hotels. Airbnb's taxes will make a significant contribution to this amount. The financial details of the the tax treaty with Airbnb were only released on Monday. This caused some controversy, with the PvdA and GroenLinks even going as far as calling for the treaty to be cancelled due to the secrecy about the details.