Why engage a specialist Airbnb Chartered Accountant that has deep expertise in tax and accounting matters for Short Term Rental providers
Actually accounting for short term rentals (STR) industry is more complex than many people think. As such, it’s really important you engage an experienced Chartered Accountant early in your STR journey.
What are the short-term rental pitfalls to be wary off?
- GST – GST has different implications depending on the type of property, business structure, length of stay, amount of fees earned from management and more. Most accountants without experience in the STR market will make mistakes in providing advice and make errors in submitting BAS.
- STR set-up and rental fees need to be properly accounted for whether you are outsourcing to companies like Airkeeper, Hometime, MadeComfy, Houst or you are self managing and using software platforms like Hospitable, Guesty or Lodgify. This is important to maximise profitability but also reduce taxes.
- Timing – so many new hosts get the timing of when they spend money all wrong. It’s vital to book a session with Rider Accountants STR experts to ensure you plan correctly when to spend money on things your rental needs.
- Software – all our short-term rental and AirBNB clients use Xero bookkeeping and invoicing software. It’s connected to your bank account allow you to accurately code the income and expenditure items on a weekly basis thereby allowing your accountant to focus on the more important advice and tax planning matters.
5. Business Structure – before day one you need to engage your accountant to setup the correct business structure – for 2 main reasons:
a) to protect your personal assets from things that may go wrong with the rental property or your guests.
b) tax minimisation.
6. Tax Planning – it may be your moral obligation to pay as much tax as possible but absolutely your business and legal obligation to pay as little tax as possible and for that you will need an expert short term rental/ AirBNB Tax Practitioner in your corner giving you tax tips to send as little money to the ATO as legally possible.
To get started, send an email today to this firm’s expert AirBNB accounting team: team@rideraccountants.com.au