Licensing & tax guide

Short-term rental licensing & tax in Taiwan

Renting a home to the public by the day or week counts as hotel business under the Act for the Development of Tourism. It needs a hotel registration, or a B&B registration in the limited areas where B&Bs are allowed. Monthly residential leases are not hotel business.

At a glance

Licensing steps

1. Operating hotel or B&B business without a registration certificate is illegal. Unlicensed hotel business is fined NT$100,000–2,000,000 (NT$100,000–1,000,000 for B&Bs) and ordered to close (Act for the Development of Tourism, Art. 55).
2. Advertising unlicensed lodging online or in other media is a separate offense, fined NT$100,000–1,500,000 and ordered removed (Art. 55-1).
3. Operators who keep going after a closure order can be fined again for each offense and have water and power cut off.
4. B&Bs (民宿) can only be set up in specific areas, such as non-urban land, scenic and tourism areas, national parks, indigenous, remote and offshore-island areas, leisure farms, and areas with cultural or historic character.

Tax notes

• A B&B with up to 5 rooms and no more than 150 sq m of rooms, run by the owner without employees, is treated as a household sideline: no business tax registration or business tax, but the income goes on the owner's income tax return.
• B&Bs above that size, and hotels, must register for tax with the National Taxation Bureau and pay business tax.

Cities in Taiwan

Sources