@Brenda328 Lodging tax doesn't "disappear into the Airbnb coffers".
To begin with, any taxes collected on a stay are held in a separate account to be paid over later (depending on the rules of the collecting agency). If the stay is cancelled or credited, those taxes get reversed out of the holding account. They are not revenue, and did not get received if the stay didn't happen.
Example using random numbers.
Room Charge: $90
Cleaning Fee: $10
Guest Service Fee: $15
Occupancy Tax: $20
Total charged to guest credit card : $135.
Airbnb collects $15 plus 3% of the room charge, $3, for itself, but this $18 goes into a holding account until the stay happens. It only becomes actual revenue after the stay occurs and the payout happens.
$20 goes into a tax holding account to be paid to the taxing agency (it is not Airbnb's money).
The host receives $97.
If a voucher is issued for the full amount, the full amount of $135 goes back to the guest, and the $20 tax is reversed out of the holding account as if it never existed, because the stay did not happen.
$18 is reversed out of the Airbnb holding account for revenue, and the host loses $97.
If there is a cancellation, but a partial payout to the host, the tax gets recalculated to the actual amount.
If you are filing and paying your own local taxes, you are, in fact, doing a similar thing. The tax you collect is not revenue to you, and should be held separately, to be paid over later.
If the guest now has a voucher for $135 and uses it to book a stay with no tax, at $115, yes they have $20 left, of their own money, but in all likelihood, that will never get used, and no tax is collected or remitted. So it's then probably a $20 loss for the guest.