How are hosts collecting county taxes?

[Christian1193]

I've been told by Airbnb that I need to open a resolution every single time I get a booking and request that the guest after submitting there reservation be hit with a surprise county tax that they need to pay in addition to what they thought was the final price. Ridiculous!

How are other hosts collecting county taxes when Airbnb is not collecting it for them? Here in Osceola county on top of the 7.5% sales tax there is an additional 6% tourism development tax that needs to be remitted to the county tax agency but Airbnb is not collecting this on our behalf. 

There is documentation that we can opt-out of automatic tax collection where we can add our own taxes and have Airbnb send those taxes directly to us instead but for no reason they are not allowing me to do this for all my listings. 

This is Airbnb documentation about this:

If you opt out of default tax collection and add your own taxes, we collect the taxes on your nightly rate and fees but pass them to you to remit to the tax authorities. If you add taxes in addition to the taxes we automatically collect, we pass your additional taxes to you to remit to the tax authorities, and we remit the taxes we automatically collect directly to the tax authorities. If you opt out of default tax collection, adding a tax replaces all default taxes.

Anyone here have the same problem?

[Emilia42]

@Christian1193 

Have you tried this:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2523/how-do-i-add-taxes-to-my-listings

The 'adding a tax' option just became available in my (remote) area. Maybe it is available in your area now too? Do you have professional hosting tools enabled?

[Christian1193]

Hi @Emilia42 ,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I've been fighting with Airbnb to have this added to my profile but will not budge. I have professional tools installed and also showcasing all my listing under an LLC not a a regular individual and its still not available. That's exactly the solution I've been requesting for but they will not listen to me. Had a question are they collecting this tax for you and sending you the tax portion for you to pay the county?

Thanks for the reply!

[Emilia42]

@Christian1193, The funny part is hosts in my area/state do not have any additional taxes to collect. Airbnb collects and remits sales taxes to the state but that is it. So I am not really sure why I have this option when I have no use for it. 

[Amy-and-Brian0]

@Christian1193  We also rent condos in Osceola.

We up the price of our units and pay the 6% county tax out of pocket from the proceeds paid out.

AirBnb collects and pays the state's 7.5% and it's mandatory they do so. 

If you want taxes collected for the county, you need to lobby the Osceola taxing authority to get in the same kind of contract 90% of the other counties are in with AirBnb. 

We've tried, but it falls on deaf ears. They are dummies and are actually leaving money on the table.

[Christian1193]

Thanks for the reply, I've actually had to opt for this solution myself now. I'm tired of fighting with Airbnb for not offering what they said they would offer which is an Add a Tax option so that I can just add it to my listing where it should be in the tax line. 

Thanks for the reply!

[Debbie1020]

Anyone have any solutions to adding taxes? My property is in Cape Coral.  I’ve checked with other owners in Cape Coral and both tourist tax for Lee County(5%) and sales tax (6.5%) are being charged to their guests automatically. I’ve spent hours on chat with Airbnb and no one knows how to solve it. SO frustrating…supposedly they have escalated my inquiry but still have not heard back. Any advice would be welcome.