A market approaching €1 billion in declared rental income is once again in the tax authority’s sights. Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) is stepping up its checks on short-term rentals to determine whether the income reported by property owners and managers matches the activity recorded on digital booking platforms.
The focus is now on income earned in 2025, a year in which short-term rentals continued to expand their economic footprint. According to AADE figures, 2,466,075 short-term stay declarations were submitted, with declared rental income reaching €973.712 million.
A year earlier, the corresponding figure was €888.851 million. That means declared income rose by approximately €84.9 million in just twelve months, an increase of around 9.5%.
Booking platforms provide the data for tax checks
The volume of transactions also generates a vast pool of digital data for the tax authority to examine. Its checks go beyond what taxpayers report: AADE compares information from several sources.
In practice, it matches data received from Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo against short-term stay declarations and the tax returns of those earning income from the properties. This allows it to identify cases where bookings and amounts recorded by the platforms do not match income declared to the tax authority.
These digital checks are expected to intensify in the final quarter of the year. AADE will examine more than income: it will also check whether each property has been correctly entered in the Short-Term Stay Property Register and has a valid property registration number, known in Greece as an AMA.
The checks cover owners, usufruct holders, sublessors and third parties acting as property managers. For each case, the authority can build a digital picture linking a property’s platform listings, bookings and income to the information ultimately declared for tax purposes.
Fines can reach 50% of gross revenue
The penalties for properties operating outside the registration rules are substantial. If a property has not been entered in the Short-Term Stay Property Register, a separate fine applies for each year of non-compliance. It equals 50% of the property’s gross revenue for the relevant tax year and cannot be less than €5,000.
The penalties increase for repeat violations. If another violation is found within a year of the first fine, the amount doubles. A further violation can bring the fine to four times the original amount.
Different rules apply to short-term stay declarations. If a declaration has not been submitted or is inaccurate, the fine is twice the rental amount shown in the digital platform’s data. A late declaration carries a separate administrative fine of €100.
As a rule, the property manager is liable for the fines. If there is no indication that a sublessor or another third party manages the property, liability passes to the owner or usufruct holder.
What earlier data checks found
The latest round of scrutiny follows earlier AADE checks that uncovered numerous discrepancies between platform data and information declared for tax purposes.
Checks covering tax years 2020, 2021 and 2022 identified 24,383 individual taxpayers with undeclared short-term rental income who had no registered business activity relating to tourist accommodation. The findings came from an analysis of Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo data.
The checks concerned cases where the discrepancy in declared income exceeded €500. AADE identified 6,222 taxpayers for 2020, 10,724 for 2021 and 17,525 for 2022. The people concerned were subsequently asked to correct their records by filing amended income tax returns.
People letting multiple properties formed a separate area of scrutiny. AADE identified 1,545 individuals who earned income from three or more short-term rental properties in 2024, or who had obtained a third active property registration number from 2024 onwards.
Of these, 1,017 had not completed the required registration as a business, while another 528 had not declared the relevant business activity codes.
AADE also found 12,145 property listings on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo that either lacked a property registration number or displayed an invalid one. Those listings were subsequently removed from the platforms.
Nearly €1 billion in declared income comes into focus
Short-term rentals are entering a period of closer digital oversight. As income and transaction volumes grow, the tax authority has more scope to detect discrepancies through data analysis, without relying on a conventional on-site inspection.
With almost €974 million in declared rental income for 2025 alone, the sector has become a significant priority for tax checks. The next step is to compare what appears on booking platforms with what has been reported to the tax authority. Discrepancies will help determine which cases move on to further examination.
