Airbnb collecting State Occupancy Taxes but not paying to the state

[Kimberly718]

Has anyone had issues with Airbnb collecting state occupancy taxes from guests and not actually paying them to the state? I received a notice from the state despite providing Airbnb with all of my tax information that the state had not received my occupancy taxes which Airbnb claims to have been collecting. Where has that money gone? Of course no way to speak with a knowledgeable rep at Airbnb only robots and instant message exchanges which lead nowhere. I am now being charged a penalty from the state for late payments. 

[David-And-Kevin0]

It seems the collecting of taxes and remitting them to the government or to the host depends on one of two things: 1) Does the government require Airbnb to remit taxes to them, and/or 2) how much revenue does a host earn annually from Airbnb.  I can easily see that Airbnb collects the two Hawaii taxes that we have programmed, and we receive the taxes in our payout for each guest.

Am I missing something?

[Kimberly718]

It differs from state to state. My question was really more about the wording that Airbnb has under the tax section which the agent I corresponded with did agree was nebulous "we collect occupancy taxes and remit them on your behalf". My Inn is in CT and is a state that charges an occupancy tax. What happened is that many Airbnb owners are simply homeowners trying to make some extra money and not necessarily professional hosts so occupancy taxes were not being collected and paid to the states. With a surge in Airbnb's and decline in hotel bookings states were not seeing the revenue as they had via the collection of occupancy taxes, that said Airbnb now collects and remits in one lump sum as Lisa indicated. The problem is that the wording they have doesn't clearly indicate that which it should. I called my state tax revenue rep and he said to simply file monthly as $0. 

[Skip33]

I have a chat going right now about this.

answers received: 

As for this one, Skip, I am afraid that Airbnb is unable to provide tax advice for this matter or act as an accountant. But rest assured that the taxes that you will see on your Transaction History, it is all being paid to the State on your behalf.

On each reservation, you will see an indication of "Occupancy Taxes" along with its respective tax amount. From there, you will see the amount collected from the guest and remitted to taxing authorities on your behalf, Skip.

**

Is there a way to opt out of AIRBNB sending the money to authorities?

**[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Ava1111]

Yea and when asked they give me a dissertation but never any information on what they paid on my behalf. 
its as if they think this is optional and we have to pay and they keep the money collected.