Is Massachusetts one of the states that Airbnb is compelled to collect taxes?
No. MA just decided not to pass that law.
1 Like
Same thing happened in Hawaii. I donāt think they like the idea that collecting taxes opens the door to illegal rentals and couldnāt come to a consensus. So the governor vetoed the bill and asked for it to be resubmitted.
In Chicago, they just passed an additional tax of 4% on short term rentals, on top of the 17.4% hotel tax that are already collected. So my guests now pay 21% in tax when they rent via AirBNB and then Air takes their 12% which means guests pay an additional 33% over my nightly rate.
1 Like
whoa!!! Thatās one way to kill the industry and steer guests toward hotels!
3 Likes
How did this affect your pricing power? Did you have to lower your rate?
1 Like
This is my first time reading this old thread, if ABB was a bank and charging that type of markup on the google ad charges, it would be illegal, if you can understand my logic.
In any case, I once saw my place on an ad that was on some political piece that I clicked onto from FB, so I wonder if someone clicked on that ad, and then booked, if the host fee would have been much higher?
But I do think I saw that ad due to my browsing history, as I frequently search without clearing cookies and cache. This is all very disturbing to someone like me, who is charging very little for a private room/bath.
I seriously doubt ABB would run actual google ads featuring my little rural area, but who knows?
All I know for sure is, even though there are many aspects of the hosting experience I greatly enjoy, I would have to give it up.
Iām going to maximize my profits next year, and explore other ways to diversify myself into earning more money without the risks that hosting has (I donāt have proper insurance to cover my ABB biz) or private nursing (which I can barely stand to do for my regular job anymore).
Then again, I do know how to live quite well within my means.
Itās horrible how some of you have all these additional taxes like hotel tax and whatnot. I just pay the personal income tax and thats it.
Do you think itās because you are well outside London? What if you were in Central London?
I donāt think they do in London either.
It just fall under room rentals. Which you can earn Ā£7500 a year tax free. Up from Ā£4500 last year.
My last booking, I received $795 ($820-$25 Air host fee) and the guest paid $1060! My prices are already low so I wonāt drop my rate but I figure that many hosts will be dropping prices to remain competitive with hotels (that are also taxed 17% but donāt impose a cleaning fee + 12% Air service fee).
This Chicago tax is being called the AirBNB ordinance and the extra 4% goes to fund homeless services. I find this very odd since AirBNB negatively impacts housing rental stock for working people and the middle class, not the homeless which is a totally separate issue, but whatever.
They had to find a way to make it sound good. Come on, letās tax those struggling to find a way to get by and give to the homeless!
One wonders what percentage (%) actually gets to the homeless, after local government (āadministration costsā) skims their āshareā off the top.
4 Likes