Airbnb failing to remit accommodation tax to Jersey City, leaving JC hosts holding the bag

[Willis8]

During the process of renewing my Jersey City short-term rental permit, Jersey City demanded that I pay the 6% occupancy tax on my Airbnb bookings for the past year. This is about $3,600 in my case.

Airbnb collects the accommodation tax from my guests and is supposed to be remitting it to the city. (See the screen shot from my listing.) However, Jersey City states that Airbnb has not been paying it, and they even sent me several monthly tax filings from Airbnb showing Airbnb  claiming to owe $0 in taxes. In other words, for at least these time periods, Airbnb was collecting the accommodation tax from my guests and then just keeping it.

Jersey City did show one filing from Airbnb (also attached) in which Airbnb made a tax payment of about $76,000. However, Airbnb did not provide any documentation about which units, reservations, or time period that that amount covered, so Jersey City says they cannot know whether the taxes for my unit have been paid or not.

I have sent messages to Airbnb about this. Airbnb initially sent me a message saying that I could see the amounts paid to JC in the my earnings report. But this is not true, I can only see the total amount collected from guests for all taxes; there is no indication how much was paid to JC or when it was paid. Airbnb asked for additional documentation showing the JC tax was not paid. I sent them the copy of their own filing showing $0 paid. Airbnb then just replied with the exact same pat response about checking the earnings report.

Obviously this is a dispute between Jersey City and Airbnb. Airbnb is supposed to be collecting and remitting the tax. Jersey City wants the taxes paid on time and wants details about which units are covered so they can match with their STRP records. But Airbnb can't be bothered to either remit the taxes or provide the details that JC needs, so JC is going after the hosts for the money because that's easier than chasing Airbnb.

It's unconscionable for Airbnb to take money from my guests and then fail to remit it to Jersey City, leaving me with a $3,600 bill that I have to pay on my own.

Shame on you, Airbnb.

**[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Mark116]

@Catherine-Powell   I presume you are aware of the Jersey City occupancy tax issue, but in case you're not, I'm tagging you on this thread.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Mark116,

Thank you for tagging me and bringing this to my attention. Our team tried to get in touch with you to discuss the taxes further, but they haven't heard back from you yet. If you'd like to connect with them, please feel free to respond to them via email.

Many thanks for reaching out,
Catherine

[Mark116]

@Catherine-Powell Yes we received an email which is basically just a link to all the New Jersey taxes for short term rentals.

It did not answer the straightforward question of whether Airbnb is or is not collecting the 6% city occupancy tax and paying or not paying it to the city of Jersey City on behalf of the guests and hosts, so it was not particularly helpful.  

I appreciate your response, but again, here is an area that Airbnb needs to improve on:  transparancy.  The question of the occupancy tax is not complicated, it is either yes or no, and there are dates attached for when the tax has been collected or not and restarted or not.

[Willis8]

Update on this: I filed an arbitration claim against Airbnb. This is pretty easy to do; just go to FairShake (https://fairshake.com/) and use their automated process. They take a cut of anything you get from Airbnb, but it's easier than dealing with all the paperwork yourself. Airbnb ignored the initial demand letter from FairShake (so much for Airbnb's agreement to "attempt in good faith to negotiate an informal resolution" described in the Terms of Service) so now it's gone to the American Arbitration Association. We're waiting for a case manager to be assigned.

[Leslie746]

please let me know how this ends up

[Ted360]

What was the result here?

[Ted360]

has anyone heard here? i thought airbnb might finally be willing to help, until they haven't responded in over a month again

[Joseph1728]

Following 

[Ted360]

it seems airbnb is at least now having conversations with jersey city, but to this point only, us the hosts, have been the losers here and airbnb is doing zero to try and provide decent responses, customer service, or own up to their culpability here

[Willis8]

Where did you get your information that conversations were taking place?

[Deb3773]

Wild how JC is the only place in the WORLD with this issue. 

[Ted360]

@Catherine-Powell can you help any of us at all??

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Ted360 

I see that our team reached out to you and explained what happened in detail. Thank you for tagging me and wishing you all the best.

Warmly,

Catherine

[Ted360]

Hi @Catherine-Powell,

Frustratingly, yet unsurprisingly, your comment is a very poor representation of the situation. I received the same canned response that I have received the last approximately ten times I have restarted the convo. Below is what I received, from my latest communication with Paige, until Ulfred reached out, once again restarting me from the beginning. 

Unfortunately that canned response from Paige and others is not only non-applicable to my situation (I am not asking to opt out at all) it also includes a process I have undertook with my local tax office, which only furthered the proof I have that taxes owed to jersey city were not remitted to them by airbnb, and thus we as hosts were asked to re-imburse the city on your behalf. I have official documents from airbnb to jersey representing $0 of tax remittance in multiple months, I have the official airbnb transaction records showing variable and lower than needed tax collection on your behalf, and I have investigated what the appropriate tax % should be for jersey city (which did not match what was taken out of our reservations). All of my evidence has been met by airbnb with an extremely long wait period followed by the poor canned response, again below, that I have received multiple times, none of which actually informs me of the "ongoing situation" nor remedies the issue. 

Here is the canned response:

"As per the investigation, this has been an ongoing situation. We understand your frustration.

We automatically and uniformly collect occupancy taxes from every host in your area, in accordance with the results of the investigation and after consulting with the tax experts. Since there is no host option to opt out, your local tax office can be certain that occupancy tax was collected and remitted for each reservation, regardless of how many there are.

If you have additional questions about this process we encourage you to contact your local tax collection/revenue office."

I am offended by how laissez-fairre this situation is being handled involving real money that you as airbnb were/are liable for, that was then paid by real hosts who are helping drive airbnb's top and bottom lines. I personally take pride in my rental, as reflected in our reviews and status in the airbnb platform, only to be ignored, misinformed, or brushed off by the customer service team. Your response very much feels like a complete brush off and ignoring of the actual situation.

I am pleading for actual help. Please, Please, Please @Catherine-Powell provide me with actual customer service. 

Ted 

[Mark116]

@Ted360  We just did our permit renewal and we were given the option of a 'provisional permit' along with signing a form that indicates we believe Airbnb is collecting the occupancy tax and that if Airbnb hasn't collected, that we will pay.  I also am under the impression the city and Airbnb are at long last trying to fix this problem so hosts are not on the hook for money that Airbnb prepresented they were collecting and paying directly to Jersey City.