Long story short, early last year I noticed that both Airbnb and VRBO started changing wrong amount of lodging tax, which i my case should be just the state sales tax. Both platforms collected correct amount of tax in previous years.
After short conversation with VRBO and sending them our property tax bill showing municipality that doesn't have the actual lodging tax (in addition to 5.5% sales tax), they almost immediately changed it back to the correct amount.
But Airbnb did nothing. I sent them the same exact bill and talked to numerous CS members that relayed the problem to different CS. I finally talked to "higher up" CS that promised it will be fixed and still, nothing happened. I tried few more times, only to get the message that it will be handled by someone else. Apparently after last year's layoffs, there is no one else left.
This is not a small difference in $$. My guests are being charged strange amounts, ranging from 11 to 18%, instead of 5.5%. Which obviously can be a factor when they are shopping around and my property auto-quotes to be more expensive than it should.
I bet I am not the only one with this problem. How many more hosts either gave up on this or haven't even noticed the difference, while their guests are being literally defrauded? I am still claiming correct $$ amounts on my sales tax returns, per my state revenue dept., but it doesn't make it right and Airbnb is illegally overcharging my guests.
Where does it end?