Attention to anyone renting out or subletting property in Portugal. Until recently, Airbnb and Booking primarily served as sources of information for the tax authorities. Now, they have also become part of the government’s enforcement system. Since May 2026, online rental platforms have been required not only to report hosts’ income to the authorities but also to verify that every short-term rental property has a valid registration number.

If a registration number is missing or invalid, the platform must ask the host to correct the issue. If the host fails to comply, the listing must be removed. At the same time, public authorities will receive more complete and standardized information about all short-term rental properties.

The tax reporting rules themselves have already been in place for several years. Under the DAC7 Directive, digital platforms must annually provide tax authorities with information on hosts’ income, Portuguese tax identification numbers (NIFs), property addresses, and other data needed to verify tax compliance.

For compliant property owners, little will change. However, those who have been renting out properties without proper registration—or hoping to stay off the authorities’ radar—will find it much harder to do so. The EU is not introducing new licensing requirements; instead, it is making existing rules more transparent and significantly easier to enforce.