Palm Beach County Tourist Development Tax (TDT) Must Be Paid By You

[Brian1613]

When you sign up for Airbnb, it tells you that they collect taxes in Florida. Well, sort of. ONE COUNTY, Palm Beach County, does not participate.

When you read this: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2580/palm-beach-county-fl , it is still currently telling you to go to the County website to find out the rules.   They don’t really post them, either. 

You must collect the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Tax (TDT), and file it, manually, yourself.  If you haven’t, taking Airbnb at the “We pay Florida Taxes, thing,” you will be fined for each late report, and still owe the 6% TDT.

Further, Airbnb does not collect the TDT. Here is how you can collect it yourself, though, through their system:

1. In your Hosting Dashboard on a WEB BROWSER, go to the listing under the Listing tab;
2. Under “Pricing” in the listing, scroll down to “Standard Fees and Charges”;
3. Click on Community Fee;
4. Set the calculation to %
5. Enter 6, per reservation
6. Save

That will then collect the money needed to pay the local 6% tax.

Otherwise, the 6% comes out of your profits!

I just went back and caught up.  It can be a bit expensive, with fines.  

Why is Palm Beach the only county that does this?  Can’t tell you. I asked. Got no answer. I would suspect that they like the fines. Otherwise, they would get 100% of the tax money through Airbnb.

[Robert6603]

The issue with going the community fee route, is that Airbnb includes that fee when they charge the 6% state sales tax. They take nightly fee, cleaning fee, and the community fee and charge 6% to remit to the state of Florida. That means guests will be paying us a 'fee' for taxes and then getting taxed on top of that tax. We need an option to add tax manually the correct way. For now you just need to add it to your nightly rate amount. 

[Mark116]

We're working on renewing our Airbnb permit with Jersey City.  

Our city reached a voluntary agreement with Airbnb in 2018 where they were going to collect all city and state occupancy taxes.  Great.

However, the city is now telling me that Airbnb has been collecting the 6% tax from guests, but hasn't paid the city.  Thus, they city is telling me that I need to pay that 6% or my permit won't be renewed...which of course is patently  unfair since the occupancy tax is paid by the guest not the owner.

I've tried contacting Airbnb, but to no one's surprise, their answers are less than transparent.

@Nick @Quincy @Stephanie  Anything  you can do to bring this issue to Airbnb's attention would be most appreciated.  The city has told me that some owners are going ahead and paying this 6% and then may try to sue Airbnb in civil court.  We were one of the first batch of permits to be approved last year after the city passed a more restrictive law, so this issue absolutely will be occurring with ALL of the listings in Jersey City over the next few months!

I just raised our prices with the view that I may have to pay this tax directly from now on, but it is a really strange situation where Airbnb indicates they've paid the tax on our behalf and the city is adamant that Airbnb has not paid it.

[Quincy]

Hello @Mark116, thanks for the tag here. I've checked this with the team just now, and I've been informed that this case is currently being reviewed. A member of the team will reach out to you asap. 

[Mark116]

@Quincy  Thank you Quincy!  I really appreciate it.  As a long time procrastinator, I was blindsided to get this information last week from Jersey City's Office of Housing Preservation, since my deadline is tomorrow, LOL.   

[Quincy]

Oh no, that's very soon already @Mark116! I've added this on to the request that I sent earlier to the team. 

[Mark116]

@Quincy  One more piece of information, the city says that initially Airbnb did pay the city the tax they were collecting.  The woman I spoke to said that after they passed the ordinance that severely limited/regulated Airbnb's in Jersey City, [I think this was passed or went into effect last January] that then they stopped paying anything to the city.

My plan is to file for the permit renewal and not pay the 6%, I assume the renewal will be denied but it will at least give some time for resolution between Airbnb and Jersey City and for us to possibly consult a lawyer or pay the 6% on appeal.

Thanks again for your assistance!

[Jody11]

There is no "Standard Fees and Charges" under pricing or anywhere else on the Airbnb website. How can I add a charge of 6% for taxes to my guests payment?

[Gus15]

Property Management and Super Co-Host offering my services in Palm Beach County and Broward County FL

Hi! My name is Gus and I am a Super Co-Host and Property manager servicing Palm Beach County and Broward county Florida. I just recently helped a new Airbnb Host with the roll out of their Triplex and is already booked for the next several month with revenues of 13k a month!

I am very personable, I am hands on also! Will treat you like family and as if your home is my very own! My fees are not crazy! You get top quality work from me and direct communication!

Let me help you reach your Airbnb Hosting goals!

Gus

**[E-mail address & phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Taika1]

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We are eager to create new relationships and look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

Please let me know if you have any questions

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[Taika0]

Hello I have a cleaning company and we offer free COVID disinfecting. My contact number is

**[Phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Brian1613]

Are you also a host?

[Linda3172]

Hi Brian - do you know if this is still applicable in 2021?  I looked for the community fee (I'm in the Web Browser), but don't find that.  Can it be used with the Smart pricing?  

[Brian1613]

Hi Linda ! 

At this point, Airbnb is remitting the tax to you in your gross. You’re supposed to pay it out from there. If you find that isn’t the case, as whatever they’re doing for this seems to be a bit random, do let me know.

I’m the new Airbnb Community Leader for West Palm Beach/The Palm Beaches/Palm Beach County.  If you have Facebook, join us at  https://www.facebook.com/groups/westpalmbeachairbnbhosts. The goal is to have a stronger community where we can engage in improving our hosting, and dealing with common issues like our seemingly perpetual  tax challenges with Ms. Gannon’s office.

[Troy203]

@Brian1613  Thanks for you guidance on this. To confirm, is airbnb now collecting the 6% local tax  from the guests upfront and adding that to our gross for us to remit to the west palm tax office? Or do we still need add the community tax and handle that internally? 

[Brian1613]

The Community Fee is additional. This bug Airbnb fixed. They should pass through the County Tax for our county to us, as they don’t remit it.  We’re the only county in Florida where the Assessor doesn’t like 100% compliance and to get paid fully.  Fines, maybe? I know it was a two year battle with Airbnb. 

I’m the new Community Leader for West Palm Beach, which is the closest Community Group to you. Airbnb set up a facebook page for us. You can join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/westpalmbeachairbnbhosts

We’re here to work together to sort all of this stuff out!

Cheers,

[Linda3172]

Thanks everyone for the helpful details

[Daniel7049]

Hi Brian, thanks for the information. I just was notified that my listing now has a 180 day minimum stay because I need to add my registration numbers. I added the registration number months ago and I have been filling and submitting my payments since Jan 1 2021. I went back in and re-entered the information but I still have the 180 day minimum stay. Do you know who I can e-mail or call to get this resolved? 

[Marianna218]

The same happened to me!! 

[Brian1613]

Hi Daniel!

I put support for that in another thread. Search Palm Beach County Tax and you’ll see one or more of them. Hard to keep re-writing. Let me know if you resolved the issue.

I’m the new Community Leader for West Palm Beach, which is the closest Community Group to you. Airbnb set up a facebook page for us. You can join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/westpalmbeachairbnbhosts

We’re here to work together to sort all of this stuff out!

Cheers,

[Peter-And-Jennifer0]

Wife and I been with AirB&B and we are coming closer to cancel. We have made 5 calles to AirB&B without getting a straight answer. Brian, you are 100% correct.  However, their support keeps asserting that they are collecting the sales tax ( even though the percentage is incorrect) and TDT tax and remitting it to the tax authorities. Five calls and same assertions. So what have they been doing with the monewy that they have been collecting from the tenant?  No answer as of 5 months of inquiry.

I I am a CPA and understand the tax laws, federal, State and local mentioned to them that the rental sales tax now id 6.5% ( 2019 was 6.7%) and per the download excel report they are, for one, the percentage is incorrect, and two where is the money? I am paying the taxes and in the mean time 

they are collecting the taxes, per the 5 conversations, but have not received a response where the funds are going. Out TDT account number was uploaded to their website and complied.

Next thing I know is that Airb&B changed out status to 180 days or more and we can not change it

back to the 7 day minumum.  

I spoke to the Florida Dept of REvenue and tax collector in Palm beach County as  Brian mentioned, they do not receive any tax funds.

For those that Airb&B are collecting the funds for Palm Beach County hosts, call and ask them if they are collecting the tax on the tenants. Most likely they will say yes, ask them where the funds are if the authorities do not collect the funds, they will not respond.  It is becoming a legal issue. My name is Peter Camacho and you can call my office just do a google search for Peter Camacho CPA.  Frustrating.