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.

[Joan2709]

Well Rats! What a pain!!! @Brian1613 

They are supposed to pay you as Host if you add a Custom Tax on each reservation. It should show in every payout? So if you add the community fee, is Airbnb still adding the TDT to each reservation also? 

Yup...if they can't get it right, then adding the TDT the way you suggested is the only way to do it until they get it right. One would think the county would want to collect directly from Airbnb rather than from individuals? Sigh. Isn't Hosting fun 🙄

[Brian1613]

Our county tax collector won’t accept batch. Fines are a profitable business for her. Other counties have followed in her footsteps. She sued Airbnb to get the list of hosts. She lost. All the way to the state Supreme Court. Airbnb is a $6.2B gross business in Florida. Hotels are trying to eradicate us, as they don’t like losing $6.2B to competitors, so it adds another dimension of complexity. They buy a lot of politicians, so getting sensible regulation is difficult.

[Joan2709]

@Brian1613 

Ahaaaa..."the plot thickens." What a mess. Thank you for advising other Hosts on how to handle this. I can see this becoming more of a trend as you mention along with the trend on restricting STRs in many areas. 

[Brian1613]

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: 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2580/palm-beach-county-fl

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

[Marie5877]

Brian, this is great. I am calling them on Monday, as I was told late in the day while on the phone with them that I should speak with a supervisor instead of trying to pay back taxes through the website, which would automatically added the $50 fine per month.

I most certainly will use the same points as you laid out in the letter. Thanks again.

Marie

[Brian1613]

Please join us! I’m the new Community Leader for West Palm Beach/Palm Beach County  https://www.facebook.com/groups/westpalmbeachairbnbhosts  It takes a couple of days to get vetted, but then you’re in.

[Jody11]

@Brian1613    I have been trying for days to find a way to charge a Community Fee to use as the 6% TDT in Palm Beach County. I have gotten the same information from various sources: "In your Hosting Dashboard on a WEB BROWSER, go to the listing under the listings tab; 

1. Under 'Pricing" in the listing, scroll down to 'Standard Fees and Charges' 2. Click on Community Fee; 3. Set the calculation to % 4. Enter 6, per reservation 5. Save

Once you open 'Pricing' there IS NO 'Standard Fees and Charges'!"

I called Airbnb support several times and finally was informed that to be able to charge a Community Fee I would have to get their "Professional Tools" but I do not want to pay for that. Please help!!

[Elizabeth-And-Ken0]

Hi Brian, thank you for this post. Unfortunately, I’ve been paying the TDT out of my profits for the past 3+ years because we were told we’d have to collect these fees separately and we didn’t want to deal with that with every guest. I love that you posted a step by step guide to adding this fee to the listing. I’ve just tried to follow your steps and I do not see this option on my hosting dashboard. Do you manage 6 or more listings? Are you signed up for the professional hosting tools? The option to add this fee may only be available to those who meet the above criteria. I’m going to give Airbnb a call tomorrow to find out for sure!

[Jennifer2368]

I have the same problem in Duval however the Tourist Tax office told me it is illegal to Not collect the tax and pay it yourself.  Very disappointing

[Jennifer2477]

Same here. No option for a community fee in my pricing section.  Only cleaning, extra guests, weekend pricing, security deposit. 

[Brian1613]

The Community Fee space was put in to pay for things like HOA charges. Airbnb revises the system regularly. Contact them to ask what the current way of doing that is, and share here, if you can 🙂

[Brian1613]

Subsequent to that we have had improvements to the system. I’m the Community Leader for Airbnb in the Palm Beaches, and Palm Beach County. I think you’re on the Facebook official community page, but, if you’re not, please join us, and we can work on problems like that together!

[Brian1613]

I manage one. It’s exactly as I described it. The “community fee” option is probably intended for things like a HOA demanding a chunk, but the county is a “Community” as well. 

The only additional thing that I did, which I did not mention, was go back into the description and explain that the 6% “Community Fee” was being collected to pay the Palm Beach County TDT, which Airbnb is not allowed to collect.

Thus far, I have had no reply from the Tax Assessor’s office as to why it is better to have to go and scrounge fees out of the Airbnb hosts, rather than guarantee 100% compliance by having Airbnb pay them. Further I found that Airbnb has been involved in a lawsuit against Palm Beach County, which demanded that they turn over their list of hosts.

The only thing, it would seem, unless Ms. Gannon’s office can find a reasonable alternative, is that they like picking up the substantial fines from the confusion. 

[Elizabeth-And-Ken0]

I received this message from Airbnb support yesterday regarding the tourist development tax for our area:

Hello Elizabeth,

In certain areas, Airbnb has reached an agreement to collect and remit occupancy taxes, so the tax is assessed automatically by Airbnb. The amount of the tax is shown to guests as a line item on the listing page and again on the booking page.

Airbnb has entered into a voluntary collection agreement with the local tax collector in West Palm Beach. We will be filing one tax return per jurisdiction, with the total combined reservation revenue. This means that all hosts located in your area will be represented by one remitted amount, and we will not be providing your personal information on the return.

Your local tax office can share more information about the Voluntary Collection Agreement with Airbnb and how this process may affect your tax reporting. For example, some areas request that hosts fill out worksheets indicating the amount that has been paid on their behalf.

Should this be the case for you, you can always refer to the “Gross Earnings” section of your “Transaction History” for a reservation by reservation breakdown of amounts that have been remitted on your behalf. Please take note that tax collected will not be reflected here until the payout is released. For your convenience, if you are logged into your account, you may view these amounts by clicking on the link here:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/transaction_history/#future-transactions

For more information about it, check out our Help Center article:

www.airbnb.com/help/article/653

Your local tax collection official and/or a local attorney may also be able to provide additional information or advice about your personal situation.

Regards.

[Jennifer2477]

Another fellow host in PBC in the same bucket with y'all.   Here is the reply we received from airbnb. It describes the VCA, but states it is not with PBC.   Ughhh... I will try to apprise what happens with our nine months of fees.

Kyle R, Jun 5, 2020, 11:16:40 AM PDT:

Hi Jeremy,

My name is Kyle and I work here at Airbnb. Thank you for reaching out about the collection of taxes in West Palm Beach, FL.

In certain areas, Airbnb has reached an agreement to collect and remit occupancy taxes, so the tax is assessed automatically by Airbnb. The amount of the tax is shown to guests as a line item on the listing page and again on the booking page. This is what is known as a Voluntary Collection Agreement (VCA).

As you are aware, Airbnb has entered into a VCA with several of the local tax collectors in Florida, meaning we will be filing one tax return per applicable jurisdiction, with the total combined reservation revenue. This also means that all hosts located in your area will be represented by one remitted amount, and we will not be providing your personal information on the return.

For your listings location, Airbnb is only collecting and remitting the state-administered taxes on your behalf. If there are additional taxes that are required to be collected from your guests, you would be responsible for doing so either through the Resolution Center, or in person at check-in. Just be sure to have any additional taxes clearly explained in your listing description so guests are aware prior to booking.