Airbnb submitting taxes

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Amy300
Level 1
Austin, TX

Airbnb submitting taxes

How do I stop airbnb from submitting taxes on my behalf?  This is not a benefit that I want to participate in because we do other business with the state and it is throwing up red flags. Please provide instructions on how to opt-out of submitting taxes. 

1 Best Answer
Jann3
Level 10
Santa Rosa, CA

@Amy300, did you get a request from ABB to submit your tax info to them? If you got the request, and havent submitted it they will withhold 28% of your income for submission to IRS. Generally this kicks in with having earned $20k/yr AND 200+ stays.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/510/why-are-taxes-being-withheld-from-my-payouts

 

If this is not the case and you are talking about state or local taxes, ABB has agreements with many locales for occupancy taxes and you cannot stop them.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/654/what-is-occupancy-tax--do-i-need-to-collect-or-pay-it

 

I have yet to see a FAQ on how to find info in your area. For instance, I am in Santa Rosa, CA county of Sonoma. ABB collects 12% for Sonoma county except for residents w/in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa has it's own 12% occupancy tax which ABB's FAQ suggests you should add to each reservation OR collect in person (odd, since I was told never to accept ANY payments in person for ANY special requests). I am looking into this more before my first booking.

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Jann3
Level 10
Santa Rosa, CA

@Amy300, did you get a request from ABB to submit your tax info to them? If you got the request, and havent submitted it they will withhold 28% of your income for submission to IRS. Generally this kicks in with having earned $20k/yr AND 200+ stays.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/510/why-are-taxes-being-withheld-from-my-payouts

 

If this is not the case and you are talking about state or local taxes, ABB has agreements with many locales for occupancy taxes and you cannot stop them.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/654/what-is-occupancy-tax--do-i-need-to-collect-or-pay-it

 

I have yet to see a FAQ on how to find info in your area. For instance, I am in Santa Rosa, CA county of Sonoma. ABB collects 12% for Sonoma county except for residents w/in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa has it's own 12% occupancy tax which ABB's FAQ suggests you should add to each reservation OR collect in person (odd, since I was told never to accept ANY payments in person for ANY special requests). I am looking into this more before my first booking.

I will check this out, Jann. Thank you. 

 

I don't mind them reporting to the IRS but it is incomplete. Yes, my request was about the state and local. Just received notice from our local that ABB is collecting for state but not local (Austin). So now for this quarter I have double paid for any ABB bookings. What a shame. 

 

Does anyone know where I can find the reporting ABB does for my rental?  

 

 

I ask the same question.   Why would there not be a report sent to owners with the amounts and identifyers?  

AirBnB will let you know when they start reporting to your local authorities. Does going to Listing->Manage Listing->Local Laws get you what you need?

 

If occupancy tax is being collected for your area, it appears as a line item on your listing’s public page. You can also confirm what taxes are being collected and remitted by looking for occupancy tax details in Manage Listing > Location, underneath the Address section.

Amy-I have been trying to get a reporting from ABB for one month now, with no resolution. I have contacted the State Comptroller and they do not have a record of any payments on behalf from ABB. So, I called The City of Austin and she said that a lump sum is made by ABB to State without any way of knowing where it should be credited. The City of Austin will not make such an agreement with ABB because it is very inefficient. So, I have continued to make my State payments otherwise I would be delinquent. I was advised to get the date and amount paid on my behalf from ABB. They still have not respponded to my 5 inquiries regarding this matter. I'm not sure what to do at this point.

 

We have had two summons to go to court because ABB has not paid the state & local taxes for me.  While they have charged most of my guests for taxes, they have never charged enough & on several guests they not even charged them for taxes.  We are going to the BBB to file a complaint.  It was better when we were filing our own taxes!!!!  I think we all should file a mass complaint, I think someone is messing with our tax money & embezzling it or something.

  It is my understanding that the Air BNB system collects the taxes and remits the tax per the agreement with the taxing authority as a lump sum.  Individual hosts are not identified per some belief about privacy requirements.  I don't understand how any individual can be identified as compliant or not. 

 

Actually that is why my city started to have the occupancy tax collected then realized the lump sum remittance and cancelled the agreement due to auditing concerns.

 

Perhaps this problem should be brought up during the next Q&A.  

I'm having the same problem.  My owners (2) are being told by our local tax authority that they are delinquent in paying the tourist tax (occupancy tax).  I have repeatedly contacted AirBNB asking them to provide us with the name, address, and an accounting of how much has been paid for each property so we can prove to them that the taxes have been paid.  Today I was told someone from that department would call me.  By 5:00pm I had still not received a call, so I called again.  The representative I spoke with the second time told me that someone from that department had emailed me, but since no reply had been received they closed the ticket!!!!  I checked my email (including my spam folder), and no message had been received.  I also asked the representative that even if they had sent me an email...how could they close it just mere hours later using the excuse that I had not replied!  There wouldn't have even been a chance got reply!  Last year I'm using AirBNB.

How in the world does airbnb get away with tax fraud because this is exactly what it is. In my state of SC hosts who live on site are excluded from state and county taxes. This would be a big benefit to my listing as I would be much cheaper because I live on site. Now, me living on site is detrimental to my listing, as people think it is NOT private as they may run into me in the driveway. sigh. Still this seems mighty illegal tax fraud and all. 

Jann,

 

Did you get an answer to your question? I have the same issue in Santa Cruz. Also, Airbnb is collecting the tax right now but they don't send it to the City of Santa Cruz! Have you had this issue and did you get them to either give you what they collected or pay the city directly? 

 

 

Lou

Shannon0
Level 6
North Charleston, SC

We need to stand up about this on twitter. It does no good here.

They take the money from the guests, say they remit on our behalf

provide NO records. However, this is income generated by my business

and given to the state and county.

I should be able to report this and get some of it back with my taxes.

 

Yes,

What should we do

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

You cannot opt out, @Amy300.  The occupancy tax collection is a contract or agreement between Air BNB and the taxing agency.  You could go to your taxing agency and register a complaint about this process.  I think the Air BNB occupancy tax collection has some good concepts but the execution is flawed.  Air BNB gives the taxing agency a lump sum of money without any way to connect the payment to a particular guest and host.  My city of La Quinta cancelled the agreement after 3 months due to this accounting issue.

Yes, sounds like state tax. Occupancy tax is listed on your listing. It's collected and is added on to booking by ABB, is paid by guest and never sent to Host...you never see it, never miss it and your payout for the guest stay is unchanged.