Airbnb missed charging tax to guest

[Colleen253]

Has anyone else experienced this? I have tax set up to be collected, and it's been working fine with every booking except one recently. I had no choice but to contact Airbnb, knowing it's not going to help. "Thank you for patiently waiting, I'm forwarding your inquiry to a member of our team who can better assist you. They'll be getting in touch with you soon." Yeah right, I know how that goes. Meanwhile, the guest will have come and gone before I get to the bottom of it. I don't want to hassle the guest to pay up and I'm hoping it's just a one off glitch, so will let it go, but I'm concerned it will keep happening.

[Kelly149]

@Colleen253  Doesn’t matter. If you’re in an area where ABB is supposed to collect tax & remit and they don’t, that’s a them problem, not a you problem. 

[Colleen253]

@Kelly149 No, unfortunately, it's down to me to file and remit this tax. A royal pita it is. So it comes out of my pocket when they make a mistake like this.

[Kelly149]

@Colleen253  Yuck. So tax is owed, abb adds to the bill & sends to you, then you remit? Definite pita. Let us know what happens??

[Colleen253]

@Kelly149 Yes, the powers that be say we need to ask the OTA to collect and submit on our behalf but of course the OTA is impossible to ask anything of. 

[Willene1]

@Colleen253  Just curious, is this just an Alberta thing?  I’ve never heard of this in BC. 

[Colleen253]

@Willene1 I don't know about BC, but Alberta has recently decided that we need to be collecting the tourism levy.

[Willene1]

What a nightmare!  No, have not heard anything like that before. 

[Brian2036]

@Colleen253 @Kelly149 

Could the guest be tax-exempt for some obscure reason?

 I can’t think of what it would be though.

[Colleen253]

@Brian2036 This is a tourism levy so I doubt it. They don't appear to fall under any exempt category either, but I'll find out, I guess. I hope. Anyway, I should be informed somehow, I would think. I need to know if this was a mistake or not.

[Susan990]

How many nights was this booking for? If a month or more the tourist/lodging taxes are not collectable and the ABB programing will automatically NOT collect them.  Also check your settings to make sure this tax collection setting has not changed.

[Colleen253]

@Susan990 Thanks for the helpful suggestions! I do check my settings daily because spontaneous changes due to bugs/glitches have happened to me a few times. All is as it should be. I am aware of the exemptions, but alas, this is a two night stay. I don’t even take long stay bookings. Thanks again!

[Brenda328]

@Susan990  Actually depending on the jurisdiction, tourist/lodging taxes may still apply for month or longer stays.  For example, in Florida because they have a large number of persons who stay for several months (snowbirds), tourist/lodging tax is assessed for any stay of less than six months.

[Colleen253]

To update, below is the message I got from Airbnb regarding this issue. It's complete and utter BS. I did not change my tax settings for this booking only. All the previous bookings were charged tax, and the ones after were charged tax. If the settings changed, it was absolutley 100% an Airbnb glitch. I've asked for proof. I doubt I'll get it, because of this statement "there could be a possibility that there were some unintentional changes made from your end ..." Yes, I check settings daily due to Airbnb glitches. And sometimes I make tweaks while I'm at it. But not tax tweaks. Why on earth would I do that???

"Please be advised the property use taxes or custom taxes are added by the host only and not Airbnb. Upon investigating the activity logs during the date when you got the confirmation we found that there were some changes made to the listing settings and thus there could be a possibility that there were some unintentional changes made from your end and hence the property use taxes were not charged.

In case you would like to collect the same, you need to get in touch with the guest and can request those taxes through resolution center."

[Brian2036]

@Colleen253 

“there could be a possibility …” 

that your computer has been hijacked by space invaders.

Or it has developed the ability to act autonomously.

Or it is all happening in a parallel universe.

The only thing that could NOT be a possibility is a defect in the Airbnb computer software.

Impossible. Don’t even go there.