Tourist rental - is a cash register necessary?

Many entrepreneurs who own apartments, houses or lodgings decide to rent out for tourists. However, most often it is made for the benefit of natural persons who do not conduct business activity, therefore the question arises whether the income from tourist rental should be recorded at the cash register. We answer below!

Tourist rental and the objective exemption from the cash register

From the provisions of par. 2 clause 1 of the regulation on exemptions, it follows that the obligation to keep records with the use of cash registers in a given tax year, but not longer than until December 31, 2018, exempts the activities listed in the annex to the regulation, e.g. tourist rental.

In this case, the key issue for the application of the exemption from recording sales at the cash register is to determine whether the tourist rental services fall within one of the PKWiU groupings indicated in the annex to the above-mentioned regulation.

These activities include only a few accommodation services. These are the following services:

1. accommodation and accompanying services provided by hotels, motels, boarding houses and other hotel facilities - applies only to services provided by children's camps (PKWiU ex 55.10.10.0, item 19 of the Annex),
2. other services of tourist accommodation facilities and short-term accommodation without service - applies only to services provided by children's camps (PKWiU ex 55.20.19.0, item 20 of the Annex),
3. other services related to accommodation, excluding PKWiU 55.90.13.0 - applies only to: short-term accommodation services, other, not classified elsewhere, excluding hotel and tourist services (PKWiU ex 55.90.1, item 21 of the Annex), if the provision of these services has been entirely documented by an invoice

The obligation to document the sale with an invoice has been directly entered in the relevant items of the attachment.

It should also be noted that it is the taxpayer who is obliged to make an independent statistical classification of the services provided by him and that he is responsible for the correct classification. In case of difficulties, he may ask for help from the Statistical Office in Łódź.

However, in a situation where the tourist rental is short-term (holiday, tourist), the related services are usually classified in PKWiU 55.20 as "Tourist accommodation and short-term accommodation facilities". This grouping includes, among others:

• services provided by youth hostels, mountain hostels, chalets or cottages,
• services provided by holiday homes to which guests, who are away from their permanent place of residence, have the right of joint use for a specified period of each year,
• accommodation in a daily or weekly cycle, with or without the provision of minimum services accompanying accommodation in specially furnished rooms or rooms enabling accommodation in holiday recreation facilities (e.g. in summer camps, holiday centers, excursion houses), guest quarters, bungalows, training centers - leisure, farms (agritourism) and during the summer holidays in student dormitories, boarding houses and school dormitories.

Services classified in PKWiU 55.20 are not listed in the appendix to the above-mentioned the regulation as exempt from filing (with the exception of services provided by children's camps). Therefore, if the taxpayer provides services falling within this grouping, he cannot take advantage of the exemption from the obligation to record pursuant to par. 2 clause 1 above regulation.

It is worth noting, however, that there are also other exemptions that do not depend on the classification of services that the taxpayer can use. One of these exemptions is the form of payment in item 39 of the Annex to the Exemption Regulation.

In order to take advantage of this exemption, payment for the activity performed must be made by mail, bank or credit unions (respectively to the taxpayer's bank account or to the taxpayer's account at a credit and savings union of which he is a member). At the same time, the records and evidence documenting the payment must clearly show what specific activity it related to. However, it should be remembered that it is enough to accept the payment in cash at least once to lose the right to benefit from the exemption from recording. In this situation, the taxpayer will therefore only be left with a subjective exemption from recording.

Subject exemption from the cash register and tourist rental

Par. 3 of the Regulation on exemptions determines the scope of the subjective exemption. The exemption from the cash register applies to entities whose turnover from sales to natural persons and flat-rate farmers in 2017 did not exceed PLN 20,000. If the taxpayer started the tourist rental in the previous tax year, the limit is calculated in proportion to the rental period.

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Taxpayers who have just started their tourist rental for natural persons in 2018 must also make a proportional calculation of the exemption from registration. Depending on which month the rental will start, you will have to calculate the proportion, from the date of receipt of the first rental income to the end of the tax year.

Example 1.

The taxpayer started the tourist rental for natural persons on March 1, 2018. In this situation, the limit of the exemption from registration will be set as follows:

20,000 x 306 (number of days of sale until the end of the year): 365 (number of days in a year) = PLN 16,767.12.

If, during 2018, the tax exemption limit is exceeded, the taxpayer will lose the right to the exemption after two months following the month in which the limit is exceeded.

Example 2.

On March 26, 2018, the taxpayer exceeded his limit.The cash register must therefore be introduced by July 1, 2018.

In a situation where the taxpayer conducts tourist rental only during the holiday season, even if he exceeds the limit after the end of the holiday season, he will not have to enter the cash register immediately, provided that in the current year he will not continue the rental for the benefit of natural persons. In this case, the taxpayer will be required to keep records next year, before the first rental service is provided.

Tourist rental - sales records at the cash register

Taxpayers who do not benefit from any exemptions from the cash register when providing tourist rental to natural persons are required to record the sale at the cash register.

It is also worth remembering that you should also record the received advances, down payments or prepayments on the cash register, because obtaining them results in a tax obligation on the basis of VAT.