It’s more complicated in Hawaii because our excise, state income and TAT accounts are all linked. Yes you can do it this way, but getting it in cash is just so much easier on my books.
That’s right. I never thought of it that way. I live in Kona, too, and just recently started charging tax by adding it to my daily charge. By doing that I’ll be paying Airbnb a percentage which could add up significantly in a year. Some other sites collect the tax for me, but I get most of my bookings from Airbnb. So how do you tell the guest they need to pay the tax in cash?
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Ok, I just looked it up in the Airbnb Help Center. It clearly states under the heading of “What is Occupancy Tax? Do I need to collect it?” in Paragraph 4: “If you choose to collect O.T. in person, please note it should be collected only upon arrrival and that we’re unable to assist with collection.”
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
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I didn’t fully understand your post. My apologies if I misunderstood. But you are likely needing to turn in tax on the advertised rate and cleaning fee…not what you keep after Air keeps their commission.
This is what I currently see on ABB about collecting local tax (see below). It’s the same as before - nothing has changed from the last time I looked at it. You mentioned that they changed their article after you communicated with them - could you copy and paste what you are seeing?
Local Tax
If you determine that you need to collect tax, you can usually either add it within a Special Offer or ask your guests to pay it in person. In each case, it’s important that guests are informed of the exact tax amount prior to booking. If you choose to collect tax outside of your listing’s rates, please note that it should be collected only upon arrival and that we are unable to assist with collection.
You have to disclose this all over the place. It needs to be in your listing. Then another reminder when they enquire. Another reminder when you send the guest info doc. And then finally when they arrive, I have a simple white envelope with the tax and their name and dates on it. Most readily comply.
They changed it and took out paragraph 4 when I sent the write up to them. I wrote to Brian Cheskey and the next day they told me I could do it the way I am and the article was updated again. A big run a round for no apparent reason.I would still like to see a tax field with a percentage and tax number going forward.
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My firm provides filing services for general excise tax (GET) and transient accommodation tax (TAT). We can also assist in getting your GET and TAT licenses as needed. For Hawaii, you owe the GET on gross receipts. You also owe GET on the GET that you collect but you are able to claim an exemption on the TAT that you collect if you follow certain rules. You will also not owe TAT on either the TAT or GET you collect if you follow certain rules.
As of today, airbnb does not collect GET or TAT for Hawaii. Google ‘CPA Kauai’ if you want to learn more or sign up for services. You can also go the the Hawaii State Department of Taxation for more information if you choose to do the periodic and annual filings yourself. For Hawaii rentals, make sure you conspicuously display both your licenses in your property.
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I tell guests as an incentive that I pay all taxes and fees. Then I eat the taxes out of my rental income
Believe me SC and Myrtle beach have so many taxes and fees that I need a computer to keep up. I pay all these taxes no monthly and quarterly for county. I even have to submit if I have a zero month.
Airbnb is complicating by collecting from the guest what I am already paying without their HELP.
I am going to look into comments from above posts to see if it can help me. Any other suggestions. I am new host.
Have you looked into MyLodgeTax to automate your tax collection and filing?
I recently found out from another Airbnb host that there is a way to turn on automatic tax collection even in states where it’s not mandated by law.
I live in Hawaii where Air has been refusing to collect tax and telling us to either collect it through the Resolution Center or add it in to your daily rate ( for which you will then pay double tax plus commission to them) when you can go to your “Professional Tools” and simply turn on tax collection and enter the %! I couldn’t believe it and wondered why Air has been keeping this a secret!
Going forward all my bookings now have tax included, but I still have to collect it manually on bookings made earlier. :- [
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Great information. Why didn’t they send this to everyone? Unless you go looking for it, how would you know it’s there?
Airbnb bombards us with suggestions for everything else, raise your price, lower your price, turn on this, turn on that, become a Plus property, and so on. I have never seen a suggestion to add this feature. I’m just spreading the word.
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There are a lot of things like this. There are often changes that they don’t notify us of, they just change things. I go through all of the settings at least once a week. I report here when I find the changes.
Have you looked at your amenity options lately? They have changed twice in the last week. (as an example) . Breadmaker anyone?
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Beats me. I’m still trying to figure out why the hammer I bought didn’t come with instructions.
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I have two listings which get a lot of inquiries. I’m probably on the site ten to fifteen times a day. Airbnb makes us aware of many new options or changes, but not all, as you said. Collecting tax is a huge issue to a lot of us, and they just made this change without any notification that I’m aware of. I’m happy they did it and just want to get the word out that it’s available.
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Is that some kind of nasty crack? Like I’m stupid because I didn’t know about the tax thing?
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You? No it’s not about you. Re-read it and you’ll see it says “me” and “I.”
Yes, I just got an email from AirBnb saying they will begin to collect state sales taxes in GA on all reservations after April 1. I’ve been paying taxes but am now a bit confused as to how to file going forward. According to the email, AirBnb will collect the tax and forward a lump sum to the state without any identifying information. So I’m not sure how to file going forward as the state will have no way to connect the taxes on my property to my tax ID number. Looking for some guidance from hosts in states that already do this.
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BEWARE if ABB starts collecting and remitting taxes for you. They started in NM July 1 and still haven’t gotten it right. OVERCHARGING guests continually. I’m now in my NINTH month fighting them. They’ve admitted they have to alter the tax rate for our location but cannot manage to actually do it. They also took out the % tax field when they started collecting state tax even though there are plenty of different municipal and county taxes in this state. We dealt with this by raising our daily rate enough so that we pay half and the guest pays half. We then report and remit the county lodging tax ourselves. VRBO managed to get this fixed within weeks of being informed of their error. I hate their higher fees but it seems they must be paying the help better and building a more intelligent staff.