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Comment by frandroid | Hacker News Reader

It's mostly a double-tax grab: 1st, the hospitality tax, and 2nd, when Revenue Québec goes after hosts' undeclared income. This will have the effect to dissuade the small hosts due to government harassment, while the larger hosts will pay the income tax and still make bank. Exactly the outcome that is undesirable.

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> This will have the effect to dissuade the small hosts due to government harassment

If you consider following the law "government harassment", then your comment makes sense. But I'm pretty sure not declaring a commercial activity is illegal and not declaring revenue from that activity is called tax evasion, Airbnb or not.

I can barely see you up on that high horse. There are so many ways of making money that people don't report. Do you report the interest on your savings account? The idea that a person should feel a some sort of duty to report the money they made renting out their house for a few weekends a year is absurd -- and a government that goes after their citizens for such a pittance has missed the forest for the trees.

afaik, most people do report interest from savings account. In US, The bank sends a 1099-int to you and the IRS if interest earned>$10

In Canada the threshold is $50 for receiving a T5. You are, of course, still obligated to report it even if you don't get a form.

I actually do bother to look that stuff up each year, but I suspect that many Canadians do not if they don't receive a form.

> This will have the effect to dissuade the small hosts due to government harassment, while the larger hosts will pay the income tax and still make bank.

There is a provision where everything under 30kCAD/y isn't fully taxable. After 30k, you have to pay the taxes fully (including on the first 30k). So while there is some income taxes, the full VAT taxation isn't enforced (you can pay if you want, "of course"). So smaller hosts still have better margins than the bigger ones.

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