If you're renting a property on Airbnb or Booking.com in Ireland, you need to declare that income to Revenue. This isn't optional, and it's not a grey area. But it's also not as complicated as it might seem, especially if you've been tracking things properly through the year.
This is a plain-English overview of what Irish holiday let owners need to know. It is not professional tax advice — for anything specific to your situation, talk to an accountant who works with short-term rental landlords.
Do I have to declare Airbnb income?
Yes. Revenue in Ireland is clear: rental income of any kind — including short-term holiday lettings through platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo — is taxable. The fact that you're renting informally or through an app doesn't change your tax obligations.
Revenue also receives data from Airbnb and other platforms under international agreements. They know. It's far better to file correctly than to hope they don't notice.
What type of tax applies?
Short-term rental income is treated as rental income for tax purposes and assessed under Case V of Schedule D. It's separate from employment income (Schedule E) and from trading income.
If you're an employee with a PAYE job, your rental income is generally assessed separately through an income tax return. You'll file a Form 12 (for income under €5,000) or a Form 11 (for income over €5,000 or if you're already self-assessed) each year.
Income tax rates are the same as your personal income tax rates — 20% on income up to the standard rate band, 40% on income above it — plus PRSI and USC.
What counts as income?
The rental income you declare is the gross amount you receive from guests, before platform fees.
This catches people out. Airbnb takes their service fee before paying you, so your payout from Airbnb is less than what guests paid. But for tax purposes, the income is what guests paid — the Airbnb fee is a deductible expense, not a reduction in income.
Keep records of both your gross bookings (what guests paid) and your platform fees (what Airbnb took). You'll need both figures.
What can I deduct?
This is where good record-keeping pays off. Legitimate deductible expenses reduce your taxable rental profit. Common deductions for short-term rental properties in Ireland include:
Mortgage interest (if the property is a rental property, subject to conditions — your accountant will advise on this). Note: as of recent legislative changes, mortgage interest relief for rental properties has been an evolving area in Ireland, so confirm current rules.
Cleaning costs. Professional cleaning fees between guests. This is one of your biggest and most clearly deductible expenses.
Repairs and maintenance. Genuine repairs to keep the property in the same condition — a plumber to fix a leak, an electrician for a fault. Not improvements or upgrades, which are treated differently.
Platform fees and commissions. Airbnb, Booking.com, and any other platform fees you pay are deductible business expenses.
Insurance. Short-term rental or landlord insurance premiums.
Utilities (if you pay them, as opposed to guests paying their own).
Advertising and marketing costs. Any costs associated with promoting the property outside of platform fees.
Accountant and professional fees related to the rental property.
Property management fees if you use a manager.
Supplies and consumables. Toiletries, coffee, cleaning products, and similar items you provide for guests.
Items that are not deductible include personal use of the property (you need to apportion expenses if you use the property yourself some of the time), capital expenditure on improvements (these are handled separately through capital allowances), and any expenses that aren't genuinely related to the rental activity.
Capital allowances for furnishings
Furniture and equipment you buy for the property — beds, appliances, sofas — can't be deducted as an expense in the year you buy them. Instead, you claim capital allowances on them over time, typically at 12.5% per year over eight years.
Keep receipts for any significant purchases and note what they were for. Your accountant will work through the capital allowances calculation.
The principal private residence exception
If you rent a room in your own home (your principal private residence), the situation is different. Revenue's Rent a Room Relief allows you to earn up to €14,000 per year tax-free from renting a room in your own home.
However, this relief does not apply to short-term lettings of the full property or individual rooms on a short-term basis. Revenue has been explicit about this. If you Airbnb your own home while you're away for the summer, you do not qualify for Rent a Room Relief. This is a common misconception.
The 4-week rule
There's an important planning consideration for Irish short-term rental hosts: Revenue distinguishes between short-term lettings (under 4 weeks per guest) and longer-term rentals. Different rules apply in different cases — including implications for VAT if you're operating at scale, and different treatment in some local authority areas.
Most casual Airbnb hosts letting to different guests for short stays are firmly in the short-term category. If you're letting to the same person for an extended period, different rules may apply.
Local authority short-term letting rules
Since 2019, Ireland has had planning regulations around short-term lettings, primarily affecting properties in Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs). If your property is in an RPZ and is not your principal private residence, you may need planning permission to use it as a short-term let.
These rules have evolved significantly. Check your local authority's requirements and the planning.gov.ie guidance for the current position. This is a separate obligation from your tax position — both can apply simultaneously.
Filing your tax return
Deadline for income tax returns in Ireland: 31 October each year, for the previous tax year. If you file through Revenue's MyAccount and pay online (ROS), you get an extension — check the current deadline with Revenue, as it changes slightly year to year.
You'll need:
- Your total gross rental income for each property
- Your total allowable expenses, by category
- Records of capital expenditure and existing capital allowances
- Records of any local authority charges or other property-specific costs
Revenue's MyAccount (for PAYE workers with rental income) and ROS (Revenue Online Service, for self-assessed taxpayers) are both online filing systems. Many hosts use an accountant to prepare and file — the cost is often worthwhile and the fee itself is deductible.
The practical bit: tracking through the year
The easiest way to handle all of this is to track as you go, not in a rush before the return deadline.
Log every booking when it happens. Record every expense when you pay it. Photograph every receipt. By December, you should have everything you need ready to hand to an accountant or enter yourself — not a pile of bank statements and a memory of roughly what you spent.
Hostdeck tracks rental income and expenses per property, with categories that map cleanly onto what Revenue wants to see. You can log expenses on your phone, scan receipts, and export a summary at year end. It won't file your return for you — but it means when you sit down to do it (or when your accountant does), the numbers are already there.
A few hours of good record-keeping through the year is worth a lot more than a weekend of archaeology in January.
This article is an overview for general information purposes. Tax rules change, individual circumstances vary, and this is not professional advice. Talk to a qualified accountant or tax advisor about your specific situation.