Unmasking unlicensed Airbnb hosts

Agreed, yet enforcement can still fine you if your zone is in unincorporated Clark County( that is all the Strip btw); unless you have a connection/ cohost who pays out a flat rate. in Vegas this is called “political connection”.and if you don’t pay out, you will get a lot of educated nasty consumers, including those with government jobs, who will ask for refunds and specials… This is what a ‘forbidden market’ creates .

Good god what a mess of a post. Looks like you don’t care for the rules regarding written communication in the English language either.

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Ah! The challenge of long sentances beyond Subject Verb and Object, follow the punctuation signs; you can do it! :slight_smile:

Just reading this old thread, and thought I’d comment in terms of the state knowing how much you made on Air. That is not really the case, at least if you live in Maine.

When we did our taxes this year, we learned that, at least in the state of Maine, Airbnb basically just paid the state a whole lump sum of money, with no accompanying records of who they collected how much tax on behalf of. Seriously. The state basically waited for taxpayers to file their taxes, at which point they were able to match a taxpayer with an amount.

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I know - I couldn’t help but notice the erroneous capitalisations. One or two nutters in this topic :slight_smile:

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Can you update us on the current registrations, grandfathering, and situation?

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It’s pretty complicated… but right now, Hawaii Island has no regulation. It’s the last island to regulate so they are under some pressure from the state to get it done.

The bill is still working its way through council and planning and is being revised constantly with various amendments. Something WILL pass, and we worry because it seems to get worse every time there is an amendment. At present, hosted rentals (where you live onsite) are not subject to the bill. It also doesn’t apply to anything in a resort zone. But among the highlights, or lowlights, I should say:

  • no path forward for future rentals in Ag or rural zones, which is most of the island.

  • places that have been rentals in the past must prove compliance before some designated date they come up with by showing tax returns (a violation of taxpayer privacy. Taxes are a state matter, not a county one).

  • you have to notify all neighbors within 300 feet of your rental, as you do when requesting a planning variance. If anyone writes in with objections, your permit may get denied. Any complaints from neighbors are sent to planning which will refer to them next time your permit comes up. It can be denied for anything. Currently, no appeal process exists. Also, no infrastructure exists to review and issue these permits. Planning is said to be 15 years behind on issuing regular permits like construction or grading ones,

  • to obtain a non conforming use permit, you pay $500 annually and certify somehow you have parking, previous versions of the bill had you submitting architects plans of your home and the parking situation.

  • you have to have someone to respond to complaints on site 24/7, 365 days per year. They have to be on site within one hour of anyone calling, whether it is a neighbor or whomever. This provision basically eliminates the life of that person. Can’t go anywhere or do anything. Can’t go out to dinner or even to the market. Has to be there whether you have guests in or not.

  • the permit is transferable to a new homeowner, creating massive inequity in the real estate market. The house next door that was never a rental can never get a permit now. Yours will be a million times valuable. But if it’s not kept current, it dies and your place can never be a rental again.

  • once you have a permit, you may be referred to the property tax office and reassessd at a hotel rate.

  • this only applies to places not in the resort zone, where it must be noted, two of the nine council members have vacation rentals themselves, and didn’t disclose them at the time of introducing this bill, nor will they recuse their votes or apologize or explain their omissions. So they will get to vote on a bill that personally benefits them while shutting down their competition. Nice.

There’s more but that is the basic gist of this monster. Pretty horrible.

They will decimate an established cottage industry in Hawaii that has been thriving for decades, throwing thousands out of work in an already delicate economy due to the volcano eruption on the Far East side. In fact, that was about the only industry they had over there. No more.

This will not create more housing as the typical STR owner will not magically convert their place to a long term. Many don’t want to be or don’t know how to be a long term landlord. That is what happened on Kauai, and there is now a glut for sale. Real estate became devalued if it cannot be used for STR. No more residential housing was converted.

PS. In council meetings we have heard them discussing about how this is only the beginning. Hosted rentals will be targeted next, even though I personally heard the planning guy say he was not interested in hosted. This lame council means to kill STRs on this island. Well, except for their own of course.

thank you.
My town is also in creation mode.
I am trying to influence the decisions so I appreciate your list.
The stress is huge on this topic

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It’s pretty horrific. I don’t know why they don’t start slow, and especially allow rentals in places such as Volcano, which are highly visited (once the eruption ends, it will be inundated with people.)

. And their corruption on this thing is disgusting. I hope some of them get voted out in August. They have way too much power.

They don’t seem to be listening to anyone but the people testifying with complaints.

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I love my county. Way ahead in sensible regulations to allow short term rentals of primary residence. They threaded the needle on income interests of residents and neighbor fears of short term rental nightmares – and apparently didn’t pay too much attention to the hotel lobby. Also made it quite clear the rules do not preempt condo or homeowner association rules or long term lease contracts.

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I saw your post on taxes and would like to look at your airbnb site so I can see how you word it? i do airbnb from maui
can you share a link?

I don’t share my listing publicly for various reasons. What did you need help with? How I word collecting tax?

Yes wording
I’m frustrated with feeling like I’m double taxed because I’m saying it is included in my listing price

Jill

You are. You have to get it in cash.

I state I collect 14.45 percent excise and accommodations tax in cash, due on arrival. Non negotiable. Cash is the only way. I also remind them when they book, when I send the info doc and collect it in person on arrival. Only one guest in hundreds have questioned or hesitated.

I’m a bear about it because the tax office is a bigger bear.

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Thank you so much

Jill

I don’t meet me guest, they self check in
Do you meet each guest?

Jill

Yes… it’s hard to get in cash if you don’t meet them. Can you swing by and get their tax? The sooner you do it the better, in my experience.

Or you can just up your price a bit, which is what I did, as I also have self check-in. Also I have business travelers whom I don’t want to be hassling for separate payments as their Air business contact may have paid for their travel with a corporate credit card. I’m imagining them putting in their reimbursement voucher – meals, local transportation, local lodging tax – and their bookkeeping department saying, wait, what was that last one? We don’t have an account category for that, and your lodging was centrally paid. 3% Air fee on 14% tax (or whatever your local rate is) is only 4/10 of a percent.

Just curious - if you add it into your price, does the tax get added into your taxable income?
I am so glad I am in a state that requires Air to collect it. It sounds too confusing/cumbersome to me!

I back the tax out of my reported income (fortunately don’t make enough to get an “erroneous” 1099 from Air that I would have to explain. (Technically, I would be supposed to ask Air to send me a corrected one, oh yeah, that’s gonna happen).
If Air ever does collect in my county for lodging tax, I’m sure they won’t collect the state sales tax, so it will keep being a mess.

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