Airbnb

Information about the City Tax Law

On 18 October 2017, the complete revision of the City Tax Law was passed in the cantonal parliament of Basel-Stadt, the Grand Council. The amended law entered into force on 1 January 2018. Since then, your guests, too, are obliged to pay the city tax in the amount of CHF 4 per person per night, and you as an Airbnb business are obliged to collect the guest tax and pay it to the canton.

In order to simplify the processing of city tax payments, the Canton of Basel-Stadt, represented by the Office for Economy and Labour (AWA), has agreed with the European headquarters of Airbnb that from 1 September 2018 the city tax will be accounted for directly by Airbnb. This means that Airbnb will take care of collection and forwarding of the city tax to the cantonal authority for you. Airbnb has sent you detailed information about this directly.

The following groups are exempted from the city tax: 

  • Children under 12
  • Residents of the Canton of Basel-Stadt
  • Airbnb guests who stay in the same accommodation for a total of more than 30 days

You can request a refund of your city tax from the Office for Economy and Labour (AWA) with the following form:

Further information on the city tax in the Canton of Basel-Stadt can also be found on the website of the Office for Economy and Labour (AWA).

 

BaselCard for your guests

The revised law also stipulates that all overnight guests must be issued with a guest card (BaselCard). In addition to free use of public transport the BaselCard also includes a 50% reduction on admission to museums, Basel Zoo and Theater Basel, as well as on BPG boat trips, city tours and city walking tours. You are required by law to hand out the BaselCard to your guests. If you fail to hand out the card, the Canton of Basel-Stadt can, according to law, issue you with a fine of up to CHF 3000 per case. 

Your guests’ data is recorded and managed in a central EDP system. Data entry as well as issuing the BaselCard via this system are very simple. All you need is Internet access and a printer. You will be granted access to the system after registration. 

 

All guest data must be complete and available in the AVS system no later than 11.59 pm on the day of departure. This also applies to changes in booking status such as additional accompanying persons, cancellations, etc.

The guest data is automatically transferred from the AVS system to the cantonal offices (investigation, statistical office, city tax settlement). After the day of departure, the registration forms and the guest data can no longer be changed.

The following data is to be entered:
a. Last name
b. First name 
c. Date of arrival 
d. Date of departure 
e. Category 
f. Country of origin 
g. Nationality 
h. Date of birth 
i. Reason for travel

This data must always be recorded on each registration form and for each guest (slight deviation for accompanying travellers). The relevant data items for issuing a BaselCard are items a to e.