Denmark embraces home sharing

Today we are happy to share good news from Denmark as the Danish government announced new and innovative rules for home sharing. The proposed rules make it clear that Danes are free to share their homes with guests and will help make income tax simple for everyone.

Here is a summary of the proposed rules:

• Clear home sharing rules

The proposed rules make clear home sharing is welcome in Denmark and that Danes can share their homes with guests from around the world.

• Tax free earnings

To further support and incentivise Danes who share their homes, the government will revise the current complicated methods of calculating taxable income from properties. As such, the government will simplify income tax and increase the tax free earnings limits for primary homes to 28,000 DKK and for holiday homes to 40,000 DKK for those hosting via platforms that collaborate with the government to support accurate income tax payment. There will only be 11,000 DKK in tax free earnings for users of non-collaborative platforms.

• Support for families that share their homes

Local authorities will get new powers that allow them to decide on the number of nights hosts can share their entire primary homes. For hosts renting through platforms that collaborate with the government, to support accurate income tax payment, they will be able to share their home for at least 70 nights a year. Municipalities will be able to increase this up to 100 nights a year. Hosts renting through platforms that do not share data with the government on income tax will only be able to share their homes for 30 nights a year.

• Strict privacy rules

All data sharing between collaborative platforms and the government will be subject to strict European and national privacy rules and will only be used to support accurate income tax payment.

The proposal will now be discussed and voted in the Danish Parliament over the next months.

Patrick Robinson, Director of Public Policy EMEA at Airbnb, said:

“We believe the proposed rules are right for Denmark and we are committed to ensuring hosts on Airbnb can benefit from these innovative and forward-thinking rules. The progressive attitude of Denmark is an example to the world and demonstrates how positive results can be achieved when policymakers and Airbnb work together on the shared goals of making cities better places to live, work and visit.”

To showcase our support to the proposed rules – which will benefit hosts across Denmark – we have signed a statement of support with the Minister of Taxation which can be found here.

Last year, over 30,000 Danes shared their homes and welcomed 900,000 visitors. The typical Airbnb host in Denmark earned an additional DKK 15,500 by sharing their space for 23 nights per year.