We have an airbnb in Sarasota Fl. My question is regarding taxes and something that has recently changed on my 1st reservation of 2025.
Our Airbnb has a Sarasota FL address(that is Sarasota the city). We are part of manatee county(i.e. we pay taxes to manatee county)
Airbnb collect 7% tourist taxes from the guest and pays the state of Florida on our behalf. For certain counties in Florida, airbnb has an agreement wit the county and will collect development taxes(an additional 6%)and submit them on the hosts behalf.
Manatee county does not have an agreement with airbnb to collect and remit development taxes on our behalf, so we have to do it ourselves. The problem is starting in 2025 airbnb is now charging our guest the development tax in addition to the standard 7% Florida tourist tax.(so 13%). But as stated above there is no agreement between manatee county and airbnb.
I called support to see why they are now charging the additional 6 development tax. There response was it is because you are in sarasota county and they collect and remit development taxes on our behalf. The problem is we are not in sarasota county we are in manatee county. I must have spent 8 hrs going back and forth trying to explain that and they just said our address indicates we are in sarasota county and we need to change it if we are actually in manatee county??? This makes no sense to me and I do not know were to turn to try and get some traction on this. It is almost like they made some change in the airbnb programming and just because my address says sarasota fl they assume it is sarasota county?? any one have some suggestions on how i can reach someone at airbnb that can help.
