The summer season brought guests, full apartments and good earnings for those who rent out rooms. It also brought something else - the Public Revenue Office, which announced stepped-up checks on income from short-term accommodation rentals. The message to landlords is short and clear: summer earnings are not outside the tax system.

The focus is on individuals who rent out flats, houses, weekend cottages and rooms, as well as other seasonal activities tied to tourism. The tax office announces direct communication with taxpayers, practical guidance on filing, an information campaign through the media, but also the exchange of data with other state and local institutions, risk analyses and targeted checks wherever irregularities are suspected.

The office claims the goal is not to punish, but for citizens to meet their obligations on time and to ensure a level playing field for everyone in the market. The argument makes sense: someone who regularly declares income and pays tax should not lose out to the unfair competition of someone renting off the books. That is a logic hard to argue with.

Still, it's worth raising the other question too - why do the checks come precisely now, at the peak of the season, rather than the system working evenly across the whole year? Summer, then, will be measured not only by the number of tourists and overnight stays, but also by how much of the earnings gets officially declared. And that, in the end, is a test not so much for the landlords as for the state itself - whether it can really collect what is owed to it.