Hotel Occupancy Tax

[Phil3896]

I see that this topic has been talked about but I'm not finding a good answer.

I'm in Tyler, Texas with one property. The HOT (hotel occupancy tax) that AirBnB collects is a STATE tax that is sent to the State of Texas. There is a LOCAL 9% HOT that is not collected and thus not remitted to the city. 

I'd LOVE to know if there is a way to auto-add this to a reservation so the guest can see it. I'm then HOPING it would be reported in the CSV we can download so I can report and remit the 9% to the city without a ton of spreadsheet gyrations.

Anyone else have experience with this? 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Phil3896 ! Hope you are doing well🌻.

From your post it seems you've already explored the discussions existing in our Community Center related to Occupancy Tax. I managed to find a Help Centre article related to it, but I am not quite sure it helps with your latter question : 

👉Occupancy tax collection and remittance by Airbnb in Texas 
👉 How does occupancy tax collection and remittance by Airbnb work? 

It would also be a good idea to have a look at Local Host Clubs, where you can connect with regional Hosts to ask this question. You may also explore the map here to find a relevant club near you, as I couldn't find one specifically for Tyler,Texas : https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Local-Host-Clubs/ct-p/en_clubs .

Keep us posted on your findings!

[Jason2328]

Hi Phil,

Did you make any headway? I received two different answers from Chat and from calling.

VRBO is very easy, they pay the State Occupancy Tax and collect the county tax and send it to me to pay.

From what I can see in the message boards, if you add an additional tax (county or city), then you are moving to "custom" tax collection, in which case you will need to also add (and remit) state tax. This is a pain, because then you need a TX hotel occupancy permit and state taxes are due monthly instead of quarterly. I would be interested to know if you've found out otherwise!

Thank you,

Jason

[Phil3896]

Thanks @Jason2328 - sorry for the reply delay (travel). Not yet, but it looks like @Lorna170 has a way identified. I just need to find the spot to add the tax.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Jason2328 ! Just wanted to follow up! Seems like Phil and Lorna have shared some amazing and detailed tips for us. Do keep us posted if you've tried it out and managed to solve the problem!

[Brenda1499]

Hi Jason, we are having a similar issue. Did you ever find out anything else on this? There is actually a section on AirBnb's help center that indicates you may be able to add a new tax in addition to the taxes already collected by Airbnb, as said here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2523 

Under the title If we collect and remit taxes for your listing (default taxes) it indicates that there are two ways to add taxes to a listing. One is choosing between custom and default tax collection. Where adding a custom tax is the only taxes that will be collected. But if you read on, it says another way to add taxes is to add to the already collected state taxes by Airbnb.

But it appears to me that both processes for adding a new tax are exactly the same as illustrated in the article.. So I'm not sure what this section of the article is referring to. Obviously we would like to have the option to just add to the taxes already collected by Airbnb, but it appears we may not be able to do that. Any thoughts?

[Lorna170 · Accepted solution]

@Phil3896  You are able to add the local 9% tax using the custom tax section of your listing.  That will then show and collect the tax from your guests.

However, without a tax agreement between AirBnB and your city tax department, the collected city tax will be sent to you as part of the guest payment ( less the state tax ) and you will have to file and pay the tax according to you city regulations .  

How AirBnB will codify this tax on the csv that they offer is questionable. I doubt that there will be an easy to use breakdown.    You may need to calculate what is being collected per rental yourself.  

[Phil3896]

Thanks SO much! (sorry for the reply delay).  This is the best way to accomplish what I need! I'm really surprised Support didn't offer this idea.

NOW... to find the Custom Tax area! I'm in the Listing for the property (I have only one). I'm in the Taxes & laws section and all I find is a link to more info. In there it tells me: 

======>

Collecting occupancy taxes manually

There are several ways you can manually collect occupancy taxes from guests:

• If you’re using professional hosting tools, you may be able to add taxes for a listing
• You can include tax within a special offer
• You can collect from guests by using the Resolution Center after check-in

In each case, it's important that you inform guests of the exact tax amount prior to booking. Hosts that need to collect occupancy taxes in person should only collect it upon arrival. We’re unable to assist with manual collection.

<======================

I see no options, so I guess I'm not using the professional hosting tools?!  WELL, I JUST FOUND THEM! And now I'm filling out the needed info. 

Thanks so much for the help! We'll see how well it works......

[Phil3896]

It LOOKS like a nice long reply I created never posted! 

THIS is the best and correct answer that looks like will take care of exactly what I need. I needed to find and turn on Professional Hosting Tools to have the options show up. Once I figured out how to turn it on, then filled it out, it seemed to have all of the info needed. The 9% will get added to each reservation and collected but NOT remitted to the city since there is no agreement between the city and AirBnB. That's fine with me. I believe the help said it will be a separate payment to me so I can track it. It is still my responsibility to track and pay it to the city monthly. I'm 100% fine with that plan.

Thanks again for helping me head in the right direction!!

[Mia1561]

Hi, @Phil3896! I live in Tyler and just received a letter from some company in CA saying I owe an ENORMOUS amount of $ in back hotel occupancy taxes, plus interest, plus penalties! I had no idea that we owed HOT to the City of Tyler, in addition to what AirBnB was collecting and remitting to the state of Texas. 

So, I need to figure out how to start charging this HOT to our guests when they book reservations. I turned on the professional hosting tools, but I don't see how/where to get the 9% HOT added to each reservation. Can you help me out?

[Angela1056]

Ciao @Mia1561 , could this be helpful?

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Guides/GUIDE-How-to-include-a-tourist-tax-in-the-renta...

[Phil3896]

Hey @Mia1561 

HAPPY to help!!

Yep- I went through this at the first of '24. 

FIRST- don't freak out. I called and had a great chat with the company that is managing the HOT for the City of Tyler (COT).  The CA company you mention. They forgave all the past and let me start fresh in 24. Like you, I had no idea! So, ignorance helped in this case.

There is a way to add the 9% into your charges. It took a call and chat to ABnB support, but I got it in. Then, there is still a manual task each month to pull a report from the ABnB site to use in your filing.

I'm HAPPY to show you how I did it (I'll have to remind myself how I did it!!!) if you'd like to stop by my office at some point. ** . Send me a note and we can find a time!

**[E-mail address removed due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Mia1561]

Thank you SO much for the reassurance and the offer to help! I really appreciate it. And, yes, I was completely freaking out when we got the letter saying that we owed the city of tyler more than TRIPLE what we made from the property last year! I’ll reach out to Airbnb support to figure out how to get the local 9% HOT added to our charges and go from there. Thanks again! 

[Paula]

Hello @Mia1561 and @Phil3896, I hope everything is going well for you two.

I just wanted to drop a quick message to let you know that I had to remove Phil's email since sharing personal information is not allowed in our community, in line with the Community Center Guidelines.

Since both of you have Host profiles, you can directly message each other by clicking on the profile name; underneath the profile picture, you'll find a button to send a message, similar to this one:

I hope this helps.

[Phil3896]

Thanks. Understood. My mind was in a different world at the time. Sorry