Airbnb is being shady with occupancy taxes in Osceola County Orlando Florida

[Christian1193]

Hi,

I'm writing this post because Airbnb has still not been able to respond to me how they are handling occupancy taxes for every reservation I get. I have 3 homes in Orlando Osceola county and I am expected to collect 13.5% to cover sales tax (6%), a discrecionary tax (1.5%) and tourism development taxes to a tax agency called Bruce Vickers of (6%). As of Monday 2/17/2020 Airbnb had been charging only 7.5% to each guest for each reservation and submitting those taxes to the state but was never collecting the other 6% to the county. They allege that I would have to charge each guest manually and have them pay at the time of check in and or stand up a resolution for each reservation. That seems ludicrous to me to have to do that for every single reservation. 

Now since Monday 2/17/2020 they quietly updated the amount they charge under occupancy taxes from 7.5% to 15.3%. I initially thought it was because now they will be collecting all 3 taxes so I called up the county tax agency (Bruce Vickers) to see if this was the case and they said NO!. They have not arraigned anything with Airbnb to forward taxes to them.

Now my main question is what is Airbnb doing with the additional taxes they are charging my guest and to whom is this money going to? Why can't someone from Airbnb give me a straight answer as to why they are now collecting 15.3% under occupancy taxes and what are they doing with the money after providing 7.5% to the state?

[Emilie]

@Melanie1032 When on your listing, in the breakdown of the price for a booking, I can see the detail of the taxes that are included - does this maybe help? 

If not, it might be worth checking if there is a local Host Club near you. Local Hosts might have more experience and info on this that'd be useful. 🙂 

[Regina838]

All,

I am not a tax professional, nor an Airbnb configuration expert, so please take this post for what it is (my opinion).

If Airbnb is only collecting and remitting the Florida 7.5% sales tax on your rentals, then (per Airbnb) you need to add the 6% Osceola Tourist tax to your listing. After adding the 6% tax, Airbnb should:

1. Start charging guests 13.5% tax,

2. Continue submitting the Florida 7.5% sales tax on your behalf, and

3. Start collecting and sending you the Osceola 6% tourist tax to pay yourself.

See this Airbnb help page:

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

Under the Adding taxes to your listing section, it states:

...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. ...

Under the How to add taxes to your listing section, it states:

..You’ll need to turn on professional hosting tools to access this feature...

and

..If we collect and remit taxes for your listing (default taxes)..The second way you may be able to add taxes to a listing is to add more taxes to the taxes we already collect. We’ll collect these taxes in addition to the taxes we automatically collect on your behalf. 

So, to have Airbnb charge your guests 13.5% tax, send 7.5% to Florida on your behalf, and send you the 6% Osceola county tax, you must:

1. Enable Airbnb Professional Hosting Tools on your listing.  See this link on how to do that:   https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2499/

2. Go to your Listings page and click the listing that you want to edit. On the left side, select "Pricing and availability". Select "Taxes". On the right, click the Edit button next to Taxes.

3. On the Occupancy Tax Collection page, click the "Add a tax" button.

4. On the Add a tax page:
--- Select the Tax type from the drop-down menu. I selected "Tourist tax" for Osceola county taxes.
--- Select the Type of charge and then add the amount being collected in the box under Amount. I selected "Percentage per booking" and a 6% amount.

--- Select the Taxable Base charges.
--- Add the Business tax ID and Accommodations tax registration numbers.

--- Under the "Does your jurisdiction provide exemptions for long-term stay?", choose Yes. Enter 180 days.  See this link for further info:   https://osceolatax.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/New-Local-Business-Tax-Receipt-Tourist-Tax-Applica...

--- Agree to the terms and click Save.

This worked for me. Hope it helps you.

[Brian2531]

Can we also please talk about how, making a check payable to "Bruce Vickers Tax Collector" as opposed to say, "Osceola County" seems sketchy AF?!?!

Both my attorney and my manager thought this was a scam when we got an email from brucevickers.com saying we owed tourism taxes.  With all the taxes we're paying in Osceola County, you'd think they could get a proper domain and bank account...  part of me STILL thinks this is a giant scam.  I run a small business... my customers don't write checks made out directly to me.