In Charente-Maritime, Airbnb is once again in the sights of Oléron. The island’s community of municipalities is claiming nearly 30 million euros from the tourist rental platform for failure to collect tourist tax in 2020 and 2021.
The community criticizes Airbnb for not having made a “declaration relating to the tourist tax” the first year, then produced an “incomplete and erroneous” declaration the following year, in a summons to justice consulted on Monday.
Nearly 12,000 stays concerned
Airbnb Ireland is summoned to appear on April 25 before the La Rochelle court, to which the community of municipalities asks to order the platform to pay four civil fines totaling 29.7 million euros, as revealed sunday by Le Figaro.
This amount corresponds to the maximum fine provided for by the Local Authorities Code in the event of failure to pay the tourist tax, i.e. 2,500 euros multiplied by the number of stays concerned over the period (nearly 12,000).
The community on the island of Oléron had already claimed more than 400,000 euros from Airbnb for unpaid taxes in 2020 and 2021, a sum which the platform paid in September after a first showdown. But according to the lawyer for the Oléron community, Me Jonathan Bellaïche, this payment does not settle the case because “the law provides for sanctions” against this type of breach, hence the summons to fine Airbnb .
“The problem was due to a technical error and was resolved last year as soon as we were informed. All identified under-collected amounts have already been paid, with legal interest on arrears,” Airbnb reacted on Monday.
The community wants to make an example of its case
With this assignment, which the platform claims not to have yet received, the community wants to set an example because its case is not unique according to its president Michel Parent. “Several communities of municipalities asked us to find out how we had been able to recover the sum from previous years,” he explains.
On January 17, following a summons from the same elected officials from Oléron, another tourist rental platform, Booking, was ordered by the La Rochelle court to communicate the number of nights reserved on the island by its intermediary in 2020 and 2021. The community also accuses him of similar shortcomings.
On January 13, Airbnb announced that it had paid 148 million euros in tourist tax to French municipalities in 2022, an amount up 60% compared to the previous year. For the community of municipalities of the island of Oléron, this amount is “nearly 200,000 euros”, said Airbnb on Monday.