Rentals via Airbnb and profits from cryptocurrency transactions have one thing in common: they have often been accompanied by tax evasion in the past. Especially if the income came from abroad, especially outside the EU, it was easy to hide the income from the Treasury. How would he get behind it? But with the new EU regulations DAC7 and DAC8 and their transposition into national law, this is now changing. Anyone who is thus exposed to the risk of discovering such tax evasion can still hope, however. Because in the case of concealed income from Airbnb and crypto values, a punishing self-disclosure may be possible.

1. Self-disclosure on Airbnb and Crypto Values – Introduction

Tax evasion always happens where you earn profits or other taxable income and this is concealed from the tax office. This can be done intentionally, but also unintentionally. For example, one may believe misinformation stating that no mention of such income is required in the tax return. Especially in complex situations, the risk is therefore great that you unintentionally commit tax evasion.

Two examples are intended to illustrate this, namely the rental of housing via Airbnb and the making of profits related to crypto assets – and for both cases a penalty-free self-disclosure comes into question.

2. Self-disclosure as a result of renting housing on Airbnb?

Airbnb is the most famous platform for renting holiday apartments worldwide. If you have an apartment or other living space and have the freedom to rent it for a short time, advertises an offer on Airbnb. People who need such accommodation can then rent themselves there for a certain time via the platform. Often this accommodation is cheaper than a hotel room. In addition, you get the privilege to live as others imagine a pleasant apartment. This can be quite inspiring, because you can come up with new ideas for your own home. If you travel to distant regions, you even get insight into foreign cultures. This too can be seen as an enrichment.

Years ago, the EU recognized that rentals via platforms such as Airbnb are vulnerable to tax evasion. Who concealed the income from the rental in the income tax return, paid no taxes on it. So it was dealt with in the DAC7 regulation and a regulation was made that obliges platform operators to cooperate with the financial authorities. As a result, they now have the obligation to report their registered landlords to the respective competent tax authority.

Of course, all EU member states are obliged to transpose the DAC7 regulation into national law. And this means for us in Germany that there may be the possibility of a penalty-free self-disclosure in the context of rentals via Airbnb – and, as we will show in a moment, also in the case of untaxed crypto assets.

3. Reason for self-disclosure on income from crypto assets?

So it is similar with income from crypto assets. Here, too, one can make profits from crypto assets via international platforms. It is necessary to sign up on these platforms in order to make transactions with crypto assets. As a result, the taxable persons involved in these transactions are known to the crypto platforms.

If you keep profits from the tax return, you are committing tax evasion. Even if the tax thus evaded should be insignificant in the end, the declaration of this income also remains obligatory.

Similar to the DAC7 Directive, the EU has now launched a new initiative to capture investors in crypto assets who use international platforms for their profits. The new DAC8 regulation also places an obligation on platforms. Here, too, they should inform the relevant financial authorities if an EU citizen is registered there. This data allows the tax administration to verify that taxpayers have actually included all their income, including those from crypto assets, in their tax returns.

Since the prosecution of such tax offenses follows the same principles as they apply to cases of untaxed rental income generated via Airbnb, a penalty-free self-disclosure is also conceivable for crypto assets. However, here too, certain conditions must be met. More specifically, one should act before certain circumstances have occurred. But more on that in a moment.

4. Airbnb and Crypto Values: Self-Disclosure Revenue

Those who belong to the group of taxable persons in Germany for whom tax evasion could have arisen due to a rental on Airbnb or in the context of crypto values (or this even applies to both cases) may have one last chance to escape the consequences of prosecution. The magic word for this is self-disclosure. What you generally imagine is that you go to the next police station and give a self-report there. Fortunately, tax evasion is much more elegant. Because tax evasion can be undone, unlike other crimes.

First of all, you should check whether the offence of tax evasion is really fulfilled. Such an audit is also gladly taken over by our tax consultancy for you. If tax evasion is actually identified, it is still possible to submit the previously missing declaration of income to the competent tax office. However, the prerequisite for this is that the tax administration has so far no knowledge of tax evasion. Hurry is absolutely necessary, but without falling into hectic activism. In any case, you should not inquire at the tax office whether you have already flown up. Because then the Treasury has a clue that justifies investigations. In other words, this is how one initiates a self-fulfilling prophecy. And they rarely turn out well.

5. Airbnb and Crypto Values – Conclusion on Tax Evasion & Self-Disclosure

To avoid a criminal tax case after evading taxes via Airbnb or with crypto assets, you can file a self-report. In fact, however, it is not a self-disclosure in the classic legal sense, but a subsequent reporting of the concealed income. However, it is important that the tax office does not yet have any indications of the evaded taxes. Otherwise, this means that the financial administration has already initiated initial investigation steps. Then it is too late for an excuse-free self-report.

As simple as the procedure for submitting the self-disclosure may appear here, it is nevertheless of some complexity. For example, you have to be quite sure that you communicate all hidden income to the tax office. If the tax office reveals tax evasion in the opposite case, however small this may be, the self-disclosure has hardly paid off, because then one is still convicted of tax evasion with all its consequences. Therefore, it is necessary to first commission a tax consultancy firm with the analysis of the facts and then initiate the further steps in contact with the tax office and take over the correspondence with it.

The last aspect we look at in our conclusion is temporal. The DAC7 regulation has ensured that since 2024 Airbnb and similar platforms have to provide the relevant financial authorities with the names of the landlords operating at it. So it may be that tax offices have already received access to this data. How long it takes to identify a tax evader and initiate an investigation against him is of course unknown. But one should act immediately to avoid the risk of a last-minute discovery.

With crypto platforms, it is generally a bit more relaxed. Because the DAC8 regulation has only ensured from 2025 that tax offices receive data on taxable persons who have made transactions with crypto assets. We should act as soon as possible and put the tax issue in order.