Tax increases when you are considered a "professional host"

[Britta739]

I am getting different information from the support team on the occupancy tax situation my renters are experiencing.

I am in MA, and there is a rule that if you rent 31 days or longer you get a discount on the occupancy taxes. One of my reservations which is 59 days shows a very low tax. One other reservation which is 31 days shows a much higher tax. I asked support about this, and they explained that because I use their API to link to a third-party pricing tool I am considered a "professional host" and thus they charge higher taxes.

This is confusing because taxes are set by the state, so how can Air BnB make that decision to charge me more? Second, where does it say anywhere in the support docs that if I use an API I am not considered a "professional host"? There is no notification that I am in a new category of hosts and there is no visible UI indicator for that either. 

Does anyone have experience with this, or any info?

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@Britta739 I suspect support are confusing tax with the Airbnb service fee. For API linked hosts you pay 15%+Tax service fee and the guest pays zero. Non linked hosts have a choice of this method or the original which is 3% host, 14.2% guest (+tax).