Contradictory statements about occupancy rates have increased tax scrutiny of hotels, compelling Iran National Tax Administration to implement jeopardy assessment.
This is undertaken when the assessment or collection of tax is determined to be in jeopardy. Under such circumstances, the tax authority is allowed to make an immediate assessment without following the procedures required for an ordinary assessment (such as evaluating the accounts) and file for tax collection without delay.
Reports circulated last month that top quality hotels in the country are fully booked for the peak travel season in 2017, but the claim has been vehemently denied by hotel owners.
“On average, the occupancy rate of Iranian hotels is less than 50%, but claims by tourism officials have compelled tax authorities to put us under scrutiny,” Jamshid Hamzehzadeh, president of the Iranian Hoteliers’ Society, told Mehr News Agency.
Relying on these statements, tax collectors are “billing us without even assessing our books”.
“They’ve even billed a hotel for three times the tax they’re supposed to pay,” he said.
Hamzehzadeh stressed that this is putting undue pressure on hotels struggling to stay afloat due to declining occupancy rates.
“More than 80% of tourism facilities across the country are facing jeopardy assessment,” he said, urging tax authorities to assess every establishment’s accounts instead of relying on hearsay.
Tourism officials have a history of making grand claims about the occupancy rate of Iran’s four- and five-star hotels.
Last year, Masoud Soltanifar, the head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, said the country’s top hotel groups, namely Homa, Laleh, Parsian and Pars, enjoy 55-75% occupancy rates.
Shortly after, Ebrahim Pourfaraj, the head of Iranian Tour Operators’ Association, said all top quality hotels in Isfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, Ahvaz and Tehran were booked until the end of the last Iranian year (March 19, 2016).
It did not take long for hotel owners to refute the reports, with Mehdi Narimani, president of Isfahan Hotel Owners’ Association, labeling the spread of false news as “damaging” to the industry.
“People should consider the consequences of what they say. False statements can have dire ramifications,” Narimani said, warning that these statements can cause problems with the tax administration.
“People who have no reliable data on whether a hotel is fully booked should not make such wild claims.”
