Brazil to tax Airbnb home owners

Brazil is planning to tax home owners who rent out properties or rooms on the online home-rental marketplace Airbnb ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Reuters reported.
The head of the tourism agency Embratur, VinDicius Lummertz, has talked with Airbnb and hotel industry executives and has drawn up a proposal to levy a tax on registered renters, one of his aides said.
The type of tax, its size and whether it would be collected by the federal government or state governments have yet to be worked out, said Lummertz?s aide Jose Gayoso. ?It will be a fair tax that will not be passed on to consumers or ruin the business,? he said.
Brazil?s hotel industry has complained that Airbnb is robbing it of business at a time of severe recession, and hotel owners, who are already subject to room taxes, will welcome the move as an effort to level the playing field, Reuters said.
Gayoso said Airbnb was open to taxation because it wants to have a more solid position in the Brazilian economy as demand for its unregulated services soars during next year?s Olympics, Gayoso said.
Airbnb, one of Silicon Valley?s most successful start-ups, has an official contract to provide at least 20,000 rooms during the Olympic Games.
Gayoso said Airbnb helped Brazil solve an accommodation deficit during a previous mega-event, the 2014 World Cup, which brought more soccer fans to Brazil than its hotel industry could handle.