occupancy tax in Galena ILLinois

[Guy970]

hi, i see on my payouts that air bnb charges the guest an occupancy fee and keeps the fee. i just received a letter from the county saying that the hotel/motel tax has not be filed or paid? i thought thats what the occupancy fee was for. i thought air bnb paid my county motel tax? what is an occupancy fee? 

[Pat271]

@Guy970 

Found this online:

If your property is located in a municipality in Jo Daviess County (other than the City of Galena) and you rent your property out on a short term basis, 30 days at a time or less, you are required to pay Hotel/Motel Tax of 5% of gross lodging receipts to Jo Daviess County and 6% to the State of Illinois.

I assume your property is in Galena Territory, and not within the Galena city limits.

It looks like Airbnb is collecting and remitting only the State of Illinois occupancy taxes. You still have to collect and remit the 6% Hotel/Motel tax to Jo Daviess County.

[Guy970]

thank you @Pat271 . would you have a sample of a guest invoice  and   a payout to me (the host) for a galena territory house?   it looks like they charge an occupany tax and never forwarded it to me? when a calculated it it came to 6%. i dont see a guest charge for sales tax?

[Pat271 · Accepted solution]

@Guy970  As I said, Airbnb remit the state tax (6%) so you don’t have to worry about that.

You have to pay or collect from the guest the 5% Hotel/Motel tax. To collect it from the guest, turn on Professional Tools and the go to the Taxes screen to add the 5%.

[Guy970]

heres a breakdown. im not sure what fees  air bnb is  charging my guests? looks like 6%. it says nothing about sales tax?

Guest paid

$200.00 x 2 nights

$400.00

Cleaning fee

$150.00

Guest service fee

$77.65

Occupancy taxes

$32.88

Total (USD)

$660.53

Host payout

2 nights room fee

$400.00

Show breakdowns

Cleaning fee

$150.00

Host service fee (3.0%)

-$16.50

Total (USD)

$533.50

[Tamara924]

Your 5%  of your gross earnings goes to the hotel motel tax in  jodavies county. Air BNB pays 6% to the state. It's your responsibility to pay the 5%. You actually are paying a total of 11%