hi, I've been working on the tax issue for months. Airbnb is utterly unhelpful. In some places, they apparently collect and remit local lodging/hotel taxes, but not where I live.
When I modify my listing to have the local/lodging/hotel tax collected, Airbnb stops collecting the Virginia state sales tax and simply send it to me for remission!
I've talk to the state of Virginia, and this isn't regular behavior. They are required as a market facilitator to remit taxes for us hosts.
I suspect they feel that they are off the hook since I selected the "custom option" when it comes to taxes. However, there is no way in the world that my decision to pursue a path for local compliance should somehow released them from from their obligations as market facilitator.
honestly, I think they just have an IT issue. They just need to dedicate some money to making the tax section more sensitive, so that hosts who don't wish to do Airbnb's work of remitting state sales taxes can nonetheless collect their local tax if they wish.
I've opened countless tickets trying to address this, but Airbnb is incredibly dismissive, unbelievably capable when it comes to giving short shrift, evasive, non-responsive, disingenuous, generally shady.
They are not acting like the partners they claim to be!! Very interesting, since they depend on us/me to have a business at all.
If anyone wants to participate in my efforts to elicit some response from Airbnb, please respond, I'd love to have some support. I feel quite alone in all of this.
John
