DAC-7

Information for hosts and providers of adventure travel services on new legal obligations in the context of online booking
Noll | Hütten | Dukic RechtsanwälteMunich | Stuttgart

1. What is it about – who is affected?

As a host and/or other service provider, you can use the booking options via our convenient Deskline booking system, in which your offers are presented and can be booked both in the Expertclient and online. The European legislator has now obliged all providers of such online booking portals and online services (generally referred to as "platforms" in legal German) to report control reports on the providers and sales on such platforms. Since you have concluded a contract with us for the mediation via an online booking system, on the basis of which we provide you with the option of online booking via the Deskline system, we are considered your platform operator within the meaning of the law and are obliged to report.

An initial report is required for all providers and sales for 2023 by January 31, 2024. Your active assistance as a host and service provider is therefore required - otherwise you will not be able to make online bookings through us or any other online provider in the future, as the obligations are the same for all platforms. Below we will be happy to explain in detail what this means for you and where we need your specific cooperation.

Important: Your cooperation is required immediately, your missing data must be entered into the system by January 08, 2024 at the latest.

At the end you will also find the legal basis and links to further information on the so-called "DAC 7" EU directive and the national implementation regulations, in Germany the so-called Platform Tax Transparency Act - "PStTG" for short and in Austria the "Digital Platform Reporting Act" - "DPMG" for short. We thank you in advance for your cooperation, which is in your own best interest so that you can continue to be booked online with your offers.

2. What data do you specifically still need and what data will be reported?

The legislature has imposed on us as your platform operator a reporting obligation to the tax authorities - specifically to the Federal Central Tax Office from the calendar year 2023. This reporting obligation, which must be made for the first time by January 31, 2024 retroactively for the year 2023, also includes personal data from you that we as a platform operator have not yet received from you within the meaning of the law. We therefore now have to collect this data from you so that we can include it in the legally required report.

Please check immediately whether you have all the necessary data! If you do not have the missing data to hand, please make sure that you have the data ready immediately so that you can send it to us completely and quickly upon request (see section 7 below).

3. Why is this data needed and why does your platform operator report this data?

The PStTG regulates the reporting obligation that operators of online booking sites and platforms have to the tax authorities - specifically the Federal Central Tax Office from the entry into force of the law - i.e. from this year 2023. Why is the Deskline system, through which you have a contract with your tourism organization, a platform that is subject to the reporting obligation?

The law defines the platform very broadly as follows:

“A platform is any system based on digital technologies that enables users to contact each other via the Internet using software and to conclude legal transactions aimed at

the provision of relevant activities (§ 5) by providers for other users or
the collection and payment of remuneration related to a relevant activity."

Therefore, the Deskline system, in which your offer data is maintained and which enables online booking on various online channels, is the technical basis, i.e. the technical platform. The operator of the respective platform within the meaning of the law is your tourism organization, i.e. the organization with which you have the contract for the brokerage activity in the online area.

The operator is not feratel itself, as they only act as a software manufacturer.

4. Which bookings does my platform operator report?

The platform operator reports all (paid) bookings that are processed via the Deskline system in accordance with the contract between you and the platform operator, i.e. that are created and saved as bookings in the system. It does not matter which website the guest booked on, as long as the booking is then displayed in the Deskline system. It makes no difference whether the booking is received via the website of your local tourist information office, or via a personal booking by a tourist information employee in the Deskline system, or via the online booking function embedded in your website, because all bookings are centrally consolidated in the Deskline system. The same applies if bookings are generated in channeling via other sites, e.g. supra-local or regional tourism sites, holiday apartment offer sites or hotel booking websites that make your services bookable online via the Deskline system. Since these bookings all run via the Deskline system platform, we as your platform operator are obliged to report these bookings. You will receive a control copy for your records of the report that we as your platform operator send to the tax authorities. This copy will be sent to you immediately after notification by the platform operator, probably at the beginning of February 2024.

5. Can I refuse to report data?
And what would happen if I did not provide this information?

This option of refusal does not exist because you are legally obliged to provide the missing information to your platform operator and every platform operator is legally obliged to make this report under threat of fines.

If you do not provide this data in a timely manner, your services can no longer be brokered or sold online. This applies not only to us, your current platform operator, but to all online platforms.

As a consequence, not only would your online booking feature be disabled, but you may also be liable for damages.

Of course, we want to avoid this in your interest, which is why we have set up the most convenient way possible together with Deskline System so that you can add this necessary data.

6. How and by when can I add this missing data?

We, as your platform operator, are obliged to submit the report by January 31.01.2024, XNUMX at the latest. In order to have all data stored in the Deskline system in time so that the corresponding reports can be created there using automation, we need this missing data from you immediately, but no later than 08 January 2024

7. What happens next?

Please immediately and promptly collect all missing data that we require from you and keep it to hand.

Another note on my own behalf:

We would have liked to have contacted and informed you earlier - however, due to the short-term implementation of the law and the very late delivery of further information, the platform operators together with the technical system suppliers such as feratel were unable to publish clear and reliable information earlier. Other platforms are also still in the implementation phase or have only recently published the relevant information on DAC7 or the PStTG.