Palm Beach County, Florida

[Brian1613]

I wanted to start this thread for Airbnb owners in Palm Beach County, Florida.  It would be great to network because we have common challenges, and ways that we can help one another.


One of those things, in case you didn’t know, is that AirBnb DOES NOT collect the 6% Tourist Development Tax (TDT), in addition to the 7% Florida State tax, on your rentals.

If you want to know how to fix that, and start collecting it, as well as the challenges that you’re going to face, getting up to speed with the Palm Beach County Tax Collector’s office,   see:  https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Palm-Beach-County-Tourist-Development-Tax-TDT-Must-Be-Paid-...

[Brian1613]

Has anyone else been delisted because it is saying that you have to comply with the county’s minimum stay at 180 days? It hit me a few days ago. I am getting NO HELP from Airbnb, and I have no idea what is going on. The county says, with a Tourist Development Tax number, I can book 2 days to 180 days max., not minimum. 

Anyone experiencing this problem?

[Noreen58]

Yes - That happened to me in the last couple of weeks and while I had renewed my Palm Beach tax numbers which have to be renewed annually and submitted a response to the Airbnb email, I cannot get resolution.  At this point, it is an open issue.

From Airbnb on 1/29/20:

Thank you for your patience. We are still working to resolve the issue. We will follow up with you as soon as possible. 

[Brian1613]

They do not work to “resolve the issue.” In fact, they’re pretty terrible about telling you what the issue is, or how to fix it, other than it’s on you.  After 37 days of trying, and lots of exchanges with Airbnb’s byzantine tax department, I can attest to this.  If you look up Palm Beach County 180 day, you will see the thread with the fixes. Wouldn’t it be nice if Airbnb actually put out that level of clarity.

[Brian1613]

If you are going to host in Palm Beach County, Airbnb’s Palm Beach County page is completely inaccurate. So is their Florida page. They do NOT PAY ALL TAXES in PALM BEACH COUNTY.  The Palm Beach County Tax Assessor also does not tell you everything that you need to know to be compliant.  Here is what they should tell you:

LICENSURE:

To meet all government and tax requirements, you will need the following:

STATE:

Get a Vacation Rental license from the Florida Department of Department of Business & Professional Regulation, commonly known as a “DBPR.”  You will need it at your city licensure, in most cases.   
https://www.myfloridalicense.com/intentions2.asp?chBoard=true&SID=&boardid=200&professionid=2007

COUNTY:
You will need both a Tourist Development Tax (TDT), and a COUNTY business tax receipt number (LBTR). Do not mess up, as many of us have, and assume that your city Business Tax Receipt is what is asked for by Airbnb. Here, it is the TDT, and the LBTR. More bad news: The counties, as a rule, will let you get a TDT without even telling you that you need the LBTR.  You do. Get one. FILE BOTH OF THESE WITH AIRBNB. They DO NOT want your City BTR, even though it is a legal requirement of operation.  

CITY
You will need to get a license from your city.  Most require:
• A copy of your DBPR;

• A copy of the deed to your property showing you as owner;
• A check by the Code Compliance department. These can often take time to arrange. My city was backed up for months. Leave yourself time.

• A check by the Zoning Department to make sure that you are zoned, regardless of whatever the law says about vacation rentals on these checks.

Your airbnb cannot host experiences in your home, unfortunately, in Palm Beach County, at least. If you take people out and about, or to a studio, or something off-site, and do anything that requires the collection of sales tax, you’ll also want to get a state sales tax permit. 

COLLECTING TAXES:

Even though Airbnb currently tells you that they collect all taxes in Florida, they do not collect all local taxes. If you live in Palm Beach County, for example, the Palm Beach County Tax Collector refuses to take Airbnb’s bulk tax checks. You must collect the 6% Palm Beach County Tax yourself.  Check with your county to see if they accept the bulk payments from Airbnb.  If they do not, you will need to file, and pay them yourselves.

Unfortunately, at this time, Airbnb does not provide a line-item for counties where it does not collect the local tax. Here is the fix that was suggested by Airbnb support:

In your listing, under the Pricing Tab, scroll down to Standard Fees & Charges.  Under Community Fee, set it to the percentage that your county charges. If you have a community, like an HOA, that also charges fees, set your rate to cover both that, and the county tax.

Paying Your Own Florida County Tax (Where required by law):

It’s not enough to file your TDT, in Palm Beach County, perhaps others. You must log in to the County’s TDT payment system, and file your report before the monthly deadlines, EVEN IF YOU MADE ZERO DOLLARS on Airbnb. You will not be charged for a no-money month, but they will FINE YOU if you do not file the report. 

DO also watch your TDT authority. They can put on months that you did not own/operate your vacation rental, on occasion. If you see this, DO contact them to have it corrected, or you may end up being hit for penalties, and then spend significantly more time and effort trying to fix it. 

[Brian1613]

A partner reply to the video of Brian Chesky  from Palm Beach County:

We have been struggling with Airbnb, and its legal battle with our county. You probably aren’t aware, but, right before COVID hit, a loophole (There are TWO business tax licenses that you can hold in Palm Beach county, the county, and the city. Airbnb asks for a Business Tax Receipt. That is CITY. The LBTR is county, AND something NOT REQUIRED for hosts to get a County Tourist Development Tax number.) that Airbnb not only did not spell out really clearly, but which your tax department made worse by trying to require that hosts be put on a “reactivated” list when no one had been “de-activated” (You had to buy the County LBTR, which is an ACTIVATION) so the county could not comply. 

Many of us were delisted for over a month. Some, who haven’t figured out how to get to the right people at the county, still are. 

Then COVID hit. 

We went from 90% full to 0% full in March. We had very sparse bookings after restoring our listings.  We had to cancel ones over the first two weeks because we couldn’t find necessary supplies, like toilet paper, our beaches, bars, restaurants, and tourism operations were all shuttered, etc. 

We didn’t ask for your fight about data with the Palm Beach County tax collector’s office. We were not “partners” to the solution. We were not informed about the changes that solution brought, or that the County tax receipt, heretofore only something that you found out about if someone fortunately mentioned it to you, NEVER from Airbnb at the time (Screenshots of Palm Beach County Airbnb page prove this)   we have had a double-dose of being on the short end of Airbnb’s host love.

SO, Mr. Chesky, assuming that you have people reading this space, as you say, what are you going to do to help rehab Palm Beach County, Florida, and get your people, especially in Tax, to start helping us, and treat us like equals, instead of bureaucratic minions to be subjected to the mushroom theory of management?

[Marie5877]

Hi Brian. Thanks for starting the thread. I am tearing my hair out looking on the PBC tax collector site to find a summary of my TDT tax payments for 2020> I cannot find it anywhere! Since they have a terrible website and very few FAQs, do you or anyone have an idea on where to get that information? I can see the gross rental receipts of what I earned, but once you pay, there is no record on the website of what you paid! It only says "paid". So frustrating. Thanks for any sugestions.