Host families join GRTU

Host families who accommodate foreign students in their homes have joined the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, the GRTU.

In a statement, the GRTU said that traditionally host families paid no tax on the income supplements received from foreign students. But now the tax authorities are insisting that these incomes are to be declared for income tax purposes.

The GRTU is already lobbying ministers and Members of Parliament on behalf of the host families and meetings have been held with Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech and Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech.

The EU supports the concept of families hosting students, the GRTU said. The concept of lodging students in homes was not an economic one. Various tax authorities in other EU member states consider this activity not as an income-generating business activity but as a form of re-imbursement for the sharing of home facilities, according to GRTU director general Vince Farrugia.

Payment received from students was not "rent" because rent implied temporary rights over a property while lodging gave no rights but simply offered sharing of facilities available to the householder, he said. In the UK a minimum tax-free limit of £4,250 was fixed. Anything above this income had to be declared on a self-assessment form.

Mr Farrugia said the GRTU had worked on a number of models of how the tax assessment can be tackled.