How do I add a local occupancy sales tax? (Juneau AK)

[Beau4]

The city of Juneau will require me to pay them 12% sales tax for Air BNB. I'm supposed to "Collect that from the renters."

How do I set it up in the airbnb account to automatically charge them another 12%? Or, is that not a thing?

Somewhat shocked I'll be paying 40% taxes for airbnb. (local+fed)

[Sharon382]

Stephanie-Did you ever have a meeting regarding this issue?

[Dennis264]

Have you noticed that you can now add CBJ taxes and Air adds it to the billing, and then adds the taxes to your payout so you can properly file sales and room tax with CBJ?  I've been doing that since it was implemented in April. 

Sometime this fall I'd like to have a Juneau meetup of AirBnB hosts in Juneau to talk about CBJ taxes and other short term rental issues.  I think that it's important to do this BEFORE AirBnB rentals generate negative publicity or complaints, especially given our shortage of affordable housing.

You can reach me at two zero nine 8387.

[Frances17]

S&J, And other Juneau Airbnb'ers: this note is time sensitive as the Assembly will meet to vote on this topic August 19. Are you aware the CBJ Assembly is probably going to adopt an ordinance allowing the Finance Dept. to charge another 2% on the bed tax = 9% bed tax total charge (+ the 5% sales tax still)? Call your Assembly members asap. I have spoken to 5 so far and not one knew anything about how Airbnb works (though all have used it as travelers). This won't resolve when to collect the guest taxes either.

[Charlie179]

Any news about this?

[Frances17]

I'm looking through the Airbnb community on line for other hosts in Juneau trying to make them aware of the following: This note is time sensitive as the Assembly will meet to vote on this topic August 19. Are you aware the CBJ Assembly is probably going to adopt an ordinance allowing the Finance Dept. to charge another 2% on the bed tax = 9% bed tax total charge (+ the 5% sales tax still)? Call your Assembly members asap. I have spoken to 5 so far and not one knew anything about how Airbnb works (though all have used it as travelers). This won't resolve when to collect the guest taxes either.

[Nichole90]

Has there been any update to this occupancy tax issue? I don't see any information here in Airbnb about occupancy taxes for Juneau (it only shows Anchorage) and it looks like this info was last updated 2019. Is it still required? I'm not seeing anything online that indicates it is... Any info is helpful. Thanks!

[Nichole90]

@Frances17 please see message above. Thank you!

[Nichole90]

Ok, digging a little deeper I see CBJ does require occupancy tax and a biz license. Do I just add this under 'fees' when setting the rate for the Airbnb? Any other advice how to handle this properly? When do you submit and where? How?

[Nichole90]

Ok - just for everyone's benefit - I'll summarize what I learned today with CBJ. 

Room rate collected = 14% tax

Cleaning fees collected = 5% sales tax

It's unclear if we should pay sales tax on the Airbnb fee since technically Airbnb should pay that since we never see that income, however, "technically" we are supposed to pay that since the renter is charged it from our rental. They said this leaves some open to interpretation since they have no idea what airbnb does in terms of whether or not they actually pay sales tax to Juneau on that fee they collect from the renter as a Airbnb service fee.

Biz license required (state of AK) and then you file a biz registration form with CBJ and then these fees are paid QUARTERLY on the last day of the quarter. Late fees incur after 30 day grace period ($25). Also, if you have no rental income during a quarter, you still have to file a quarterly report to show zero income. 

Hope that's helpful to others.