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? 

[Mia1561]

Thanks, Paula! I will reach out to Phil that way 

[Alicia1395]

Hi Phil! 

I've contacted support and they said that I have to fully do custom. 

How did you add to the 6% that they remit for you? Right now I have it set up where it's lumped together. Id appreciate your help! I'm in the city of Austin so there is an additional 11%. 

[Abi7959]

Hi @Phil3896! We are going through this with the city of Dallas. Will you please advise on who to contact to hopefully get the back taxes forgiven? 🙏🏻

[Phil3896]

So sorry for the delay. I was out of the country. 

My contact was just for the City of Tyler. Sorry I don't have any contact for Dallas. Tyler uses a service to administer the management of HOT collections for folks like us. I know it's obvious but you might ask CoD who they use to admin their taxes and start there....

[Ana39080]

Hi Phil, 
Firstly thank you for starting and for following up on this thread. I am now on the same boat and your insights and experience have been really helpful. 

I wonder if adding the additional HOT tax to your listings has given you any competitive disadvantage. 

I am in Austin and have noticed most listings are not adding the extra HOT tax to the booking total. This means they are either avoiding it or paying out of pocket. 

Hoping to hear yours and anyone's take.

Thank you

[Ashley1989]

I’m glad you asked this question because I was thinking the same exact thing!

[Michelle2565]

Will be leaving the AirBnb platform for rentals for the very reason that in Angelina County , Texas, Airbnb does not collect the 7% Occupancy tax for me. For Airbnb to do so, I must check the box for them to collect all taxes , but then I must remit all of the money to the state and local offices. 

This is way too much trouble when VRBO collects all taxes for me.

[Joan2709]

Hi @Michelle2565 

Yes, I ran into the same issue with Cameron County Texas. Apparently, the county has not set up the ability with Airbnb for Hosts to add a Custom Tax. The only option is default to ALL Taxes to be collected and paid to Host (including the Texas State Occupancy Tax of 6%). This means Airbnb would collect both State and Local taxes and pay the Host, who in turn is responsible for paying both the state and the county...what a pain. Its strange because several other listings I work with in different states DO have the option to add a custom tax on Airbnb. I have Pro Tools turned on, and the other listings have the Add a Tax field, but not in Texas?

I found this out when creating the listing on Vrbo and seeing they DO offer the option to collect the county tax in Texas? Why can't Airbnb do the same?