What booking platforms report to HMRC and how to reconcile it

In short: In-scope digital platforms report seller data to HMRC annually under the Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023. The reportable data is consideration net of fees and taxes withheld or charged by the platform, with those amounts separately reported. Rental sellers are in scope regardless of the de minimis exclusion, which applies only to sellers of goods. This piece explains what is actually reported and how to reconcile it to a self-assessment return.

The UK regulations bring in the OECD Model Rules for digital platform reporting. Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo/Expedia and other in-scope platforms report specified seller data to HMRC each year.

What is actually reported

For in-scope UK-resident hosts, platforms report:

• Seller identification: name, address, date of birth, and Tax Identification Number. HMRC's guidance specifies the National Insurance number for individuals (including sole traders), the company registration number for entities, and the partnership UTR for partnerships.
• Financial account details (where held for payout).
• Property location and, where applicable, land registry number.
• Number of days the property was rented in the reportable period.
• Consideration received by the seller — reported net of fees, commissions and taxes withheld or charged by the platform, with those amounts separately reported.
• Quarterly aggregates within the annual submission (not a line-by-line feed of every stay).

The de minimis exclusion in the regulations (fewer than 30 transactions and under €2,000 in a year) applies to sellers of goods, not to property rental. All property rental sellers meeting the reporting scope are reported, without an income floor.

The population and the year-two number

BDO's FOI-derived analysis reports that HMRC received seller reports on approximately 1.47 million sellers in reports received during calendar year 2024, and approximately 3.99 million sellers in reports received during calendar year 2025. That is a rise of about 2.71× on year one, i.e. approximately 172% (BDO — FOI-derived platform reporting analysis).

Two cautions on those figures:

• BDO describes reports received in calendar 2024 and 2025 — the underlying reporting periods are set out in the FOI response and are worth checking before treating either figure as a single submission window.
• The numbers cover all reportable seller activities — property rental, sale of goods, provision of personal services, and rental of transport. They are not a count of holiday-let hosts specifically.

Note that a widely-quoted "272% increase" from some third-party coverage is a misreading — the 3.99m is 272% of the 1.47m base, but that is a 2.72× multiplier, not a 272% increase. The increase is 172%.

How HMRC uses the data

The data supports HMRC's compliance activity — cross-matching reported seller income against self-assessment returns and other information HMRC holds. Precise descriptions of automatic-review triggers, matching thresholds or guaranteed enforcement outcomes are not published; the reliable statements are that the data is held, that it is used to select cases for correspondence, and that any tax treatment on that data still depends on the underlying activity, ownership and structure. Where the reported figure and the return figure differ materially, an enquiry is possible; whether it is opened depends on HMRC's own risk assessment on the facts.

Reconciling the reported figure to a return — four common issues

1. Calendar year vs tax year. Platform reports run to calendar year (1 January – 31 December). UK income tax runs to 6 April – 5 April. Quarterly aggregates alone will not resolve the 1–5 April boundary — a proper reconciliation needs the transaction dates and the applicable cash/accrual treatment for each booking straddling the tax-year end.

2. Cancellations and refunds. A cancelled or refunded booking may have been included in reportable consideration when the booking was made but reversed later. The platform's report may or may not reflect the reversal cleanly. Check the platform's cancellation reporting policy before assuming a mismatch is undeclared income.

3. Joint ownership by spouses/civil partners. For property jointly owned by spouses or civil partners living together, HMRC's default is 50:50 taxation regardless of the actual beneficial ownership shares (PIM4190). Where the beneficial ownership is genuinely unequal and both spouses want the tax split to follow the actual ownership, a Form 17 declaration (with supporting evidence) must be filed with HMRC. If the platform account is in one spouse's name only, the DAC7 report will show all the income against that spouse — the return workings need to allocate to the correct split (50:50 by default, or the Form 17 percentages where filed).

4. Direct UK reporting vs information via overseas exchanges. Some platforms report directly under the UK regulations; others (particularly EU-based platforms) may report under the equivalent EU DAC7 rules and HMRC may receive the UK-connected data through automatic information exchange. The data reaches HMRC in either case, but the format and timing can differ — worth knowing when reconciling to a specific platform's own statement.

Example reconciliation

Assume a single-owner Airbnb-listed property with the following calendar-year 2025 activity:

The DAC7 report to HMRC would show reportable consideration net of the £1,700 in platform fees, with those fees separately reported.

For the tax return the split spans two calendar-year DAC7 reports and needs transaction-level detail:

• For 2024/25 (6 April 2024 – 5 April 2025), use the relevant transactions from 6 April – 31 December 2024 in the calendar-2024 DAC7 report and from 1 January – 5 April 2025 in the calendar-2025 DAC7 report. Reconcile those records to the accounting basis used on the return.
• For 2025/26 (6 April 2025 – 5 April 2026), use the relevant transactions from 6 April – 31 December 2025 in the calendar-2025 DAC7 report and from 1 January – 5 April 2026 in the calendar-2026 report (which will appear in the following annual submission).

A single calendar-year DAC7 report will not, on its own, produce a tax-year figure. The tax-return workings need the transaction-level detail to allocate booking income by tax-recognition date (which depends on the accounting basis and, where relevant, the VAT tax point — a booking being made is not by itself when reportable consideration has been paid or credited) and to show the platform fee separately as an allowable expense. Quarterly aggregates alone cannot resolve the 1–5 April boundary.

What operators should do

1. Reconcile the platform's reported figure to your return. Ask your accountant for the workings — transaction dates, cancellation adjustments, ownership split — rather than a single-line reconciliation.
2. If you have received an HMRC letter referring to platform data, get advice. Our earlier HMRC letter piece covers the response options.
3. If prior-year returns omitted platform income, the Let Property Campaign disclosure route may be available for individuals with qualifying residential letting income. Take advice on eligibility before making a disclosure.
4. Set up bookkeeping so booking-level detail is captured — gross booking value, platform fees, cancellations, and payout amounts. Reconciling to a platform report is much easier when the underlying detail is already in the books.

DAC7 is a reconciliation exercise, not a surveillance system. HMRC holds the data, uses it to select cases for correspondence, and expects operators to be able to explain the difference between the platform's calendar-year figure and their tax-year returns.

Book a free consultation to run a DAC7 reconciliation across your returns.

Sources: HMRC — Reporting rules for digital platforms; Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/817); BDO — Digital platform reporting FOI (year one and year two); OECD Model Rules for Reporting by Platform Operators.