Therefore, I am formally, respectfully, requesting the following on behalf of myself, and fellow Airbnb owners:
A) Ms. Gannon instructs her office to put the proper information in place on your official website to instruct citizens hosting through Airbnb both that the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) needs to be collected, and how/when to file it. If that information exists, currently, then it needs to be made searchable so it can be found both on your search system, and by search engines;
B) The Tax Collector’s Office should make the link of that information available to Airbnb.com for the purposes of posting on their web page for Palm Beach County:
On their site, users are told to look at your website, and they are responsible for the tax, BUT they have been told, on prior pages, that Airbnb collects the taxes in Florida. Palm Beach County is the lone exception to that rule.
Your website lacks specific instructions to pay the tax. It is an unfortunate omission that becomes a “gotcha” where owners will end up paying, as I did, hundreds of dollars in fines, for being unaware that the tax is not already being paid.
I don’t think that Airbnb hosts can be called “scofflaws” when the neither the law, nor the simple explanation of what is expected, and when, is not posted publicly.
C) Because the County fails to provide any instruction on filing to the existing Airbnb hosts, I would respectfully ask Ms. Gannon, to encourage everyone to get on page with providing their TDT, to:
1) Provide a waiver of all late fines, and refund of any fines paid, to date, as long as the taxes are caught up within a defined period of time, from the time that the Tax Collector has actually properly posted notice, and instruction, for the tax, on their website.
2) Explain to Airbnb hosts how to set up the 6% collection as an additional “Community Fee” within the Airbnb system. If you cannot get Airbnb to help you with that, I can provide such explanation. That way, we collect the tax that the system is not collecting on our behalf.
3) Explain to us, as taxpayers, why your office, unlike so many others here in Florida, is unwilling to receive direct payment from Airbnb. It would seem, to me, at least, if you wanted 100% compliance, you would allow the booking service to pay you, as it does other counties, in the state. That would result in far more revenue to the County, at less cost to us, the taxpayers, in terms of collection.
Thank you for a moment of your valuable time.
I look forward to your response.
Cheers,
Brian Ross
Taxpayer
Brian Ross