Taxes tips

Indian online travel agency MakeMyTrip will be resuming its attractions and activities product for travelers, a feature it had paused during the Covid pandemic.

Hawaii has long been a ‘bucket list’ destination for travellers the world over - but it’s also well known for having suffered from overtourism in recent years.

Many destinations around the world have become more expensive to visit in recent years as governments increasingly levy tourist taxes.

One potential issue with Airbnb’s growth plans has been whether it could boost its ranks of hosts and listings enough to meet the demand from guests around the world.

A proposed law in France would give local authorities more power to clamp down on short-term and vacation rentals to respond to housing shortages and overtourism.

India’s recently-unveiled Union Budget for the fiscal year 2024-2025 gave a big increase to the tourism ministry, but the amount for the global promotion took a major hit: A 97% reduction to just INR 30 million ($361,000).

Iceland has reinstated the tax tourists pay for hotel and alternative accommodation rooms this year. In another change, the tax will also apply to cruises.

Airbnb is among the companies that will be required to provide transaction details to UK authorities under new legislation aimed at combating tax evasion. 

Airbnb settled a tax dispute with Italy for around $620 million (576 million euros), the company said Wednesday.

Hawaii is looking for ways to help those displaced by the Lahaina wildfire in August, and Maui mayor Richard Bissen has proposed tax incentives to turn short-term rentals into long-term housing.

The French Senate has greenlit measures to apply value-added tax (VAT) to Airbnb and similar platforms, aiming to address perceived competition imbalances with the hotel sector. 

Canada introduced tax measures on Tuesday to ease a severe rental housing shortage by limiting income tax deductions on short-term rentals on services such as Airbnb Inc and Vrbo, joining many countries that are enacting similar laws.

Travel website Booking.com has agreed to pay about 94 million euros ($100.25 million) to settle a tax dispute in Italy, Genoa prosecutors said on Friday.

An Italian judge has ordered the seizure of 779.5 million euros ($836.40 million) from short-term rentals platform Airbnb’s Ireland unit for alleged tax evasion, Milan prosecutors’ office said on Monday.

Seattle will receive $5 million in funding next year to bring in more conventions to boost downtown tourism.

Short-term accommodation services company Airbnb must provide information in rental contracts to tax authorities and withhold tax under a national tax regime, the European Union’s top court ruled on Thursday.

Tripadvisor is overturning the management structure of its operational teams to address a lack of execution and product deficiencies in its core business, which includes click-based hotel advertising, subscriptions and display ads, experiences and dining.

What can we expect from Airbnb? While there’s no timeframe, a marketplace is in the works where hosts might pay to contract cleaning services and the company may implement tax-inclusive pricing in places where it doesn’t do so already.

Nearly 92 percent Indians intend to explore domestic destinations during the summer, making coastal state Goa and Manali in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh as their top beach and hill vacation spots respectively, according to Oyo’s Summer Vacation Index 2023. “India’s favorite mountain destination is Manali, followed by Kashmir, Mcleod Ganj, Ooty and Coorg. Oyo hotels in Manali continue to see an uptick in demand as summer travel gains pace,” the company said in a statement. Respondents to the survey also showed a strong inclination towards exploring offbeat and lesser-known destinations. “Mawlynnong in Meghalaya and Ziro Valley in Arunachal Pradesh stood out as the top offbeat choices. Following closely behind was Valiyaparamba in Kerala,” Oyo added. The survey also found that 13 percent of respondents wished to travel to pilgrimage destinations, with Kedarnath occupying the top spot followed by Vaishno Devi and Varanasi. “This surge in travel demand is a promising sign for the growth and development of the Indian travel and hospitality industry,” said Oyo’s Chief Service Officer Shreerang Godbole. A noticeable trend that emerged in the aftermath of Covid is the preference for shorter trips and rejuvenating staycations of 1-3 days, he said. The survey is based on responses of over 15,000 people across India via the Oyo app. 

India is a big potential market for aviation, but not a cheap one due to the high taxes, said International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh.

In the past five months in India, there have been four announcements from the government regarding taxes for international tour packages — each completely different, none clearly stated.