Accounting for guesthouses, B&Bs and self-catering

Accommodation is a deceptively complicated business to account for. The income is seasonal and arrives through four different platforms. Half your expenses are shared with your own household. Your busiest quarter can quietly push you over the VAT threshold without you noticing. And the day you sell, the portion of the property you've been letting out comes with a capital gains bill most owners never saw coming.

We work with guesthouses, B&Bs, self-catering cottages and short-term rental owners across the Riebeek Valley — and we've seen what each of those problems costs when nobody's watching for it.

Who this is for

• Guesthouse and B&B owners running a full commercial operation
• Owners letting a cottage, flat or wing of their own property
• Short-term rental hosts on Airbnb, Booking.com and similar platforms
• Anyone weighing up whether to buy a property in the valley and let it
• Owners approaching a sale who want to understand the tax position first

What we handle

Income across every channel. Direct bookings, Airbnb, Booking.com, agency placements — consolidated into one set of books, with platform commissions and payment timing accounted for properly.

The private-versus-business split. Where you live on the property, expenses have to be apportioned on a defensible basis — rates, electricity, insurance, maintenance, interest on the bond. Getting the apportionment right is what stands up under a SARS query. Getting it wrong in either direction costs you.

VAT. Accommodation revenue adds up faster than owners expect, and the compulsory registration threshold is measured across any twelve-month period, not your financial year. There are also specific VAT rules for commercial accommodation and for longer stays. We'll tell you where you stand and when registration becomes compulsory.

Seasonal payroll. Housekeeping, breakfast and grounds staff who scale up over season and down again after. Payslips, PAYE, UIF and the returns that flow from them, whether you have two people or twelve.

Capital gains planning before you sell. If part of your home has been used for business, the primary residence exclusion is apportioned. This is worth understanding years before a sale, not in the week you accept an offer.

Structure. Whether to hold the property personally, in a company or in a trust affects your tax, your estate and your eventual exit. There's no universally right answer — it depends on your circumstances, and we'll work through yours.

What it costs

Price on request

Most owners are best served by monthly bookkeeping with tax and VAT included, priced on booking volume and staff numbers. Seasonal operations can scale the payroll component up and down.

Getting started

1. Tell us how your operation runs — how many rooms, which platforms, who lives on site, what staff you carry
2. We'll tell you where the exposure is, including anything that should have been done already
3. A fixed monthly quote, and we take over from there

Common questions

I only let one cottage occasionally. Do I have to declare it? Yes. Rental income is taxable regardless of how small or how occasional, and platforms report to SARS. The good news is that the associated expenses are deductible, so declaring it properly is often less painful than owners fear.

Airbnb takes its commission before paying me. What do I declare? Your gross income before commission, with the commission claimed as an expense. Declaring only the net amount that landed in your account is a common and easily detected error.

When do I need to register for VAT? Once your taxable supplies exceed the compulsory threshold in any consecutive twelve-month period. For a busy guesthouse this arrives sooner than expected, and registering late means SARS can hold you liable for VAT you never charged your guests. We monitor this for clients on monthly bookkeeping.

I'm thinking of buying a place to let. Can we talk before I do? Please. Structure decisions are cheap to make correctly upfront and expensive to unwind afterwards.

Talk to us about your guesthouse →