The EU’s VAT in the Digital Age programme will have a profound impact on the travel and hospitality sectors, especially for platform operators who host rental apps ranging from accommodation providers like Airbnb and Booking.com, to taxi hailing apps including Uber, Freenow and Gett.

Any owners of overseas property who rent out their foreign houses and apartments on third party platforms from 2025 will be caught by the rules, regardless of where they are resident. In future, VAT charges will be passed on to owners by the platform operators so an average 20% VAT should be factored into running costs of rentals.