City of Santa Rosa Tax Collection help

Christine442
Level 3
Santa Rosa, CA

City of Santa Rosa Tax Collection help

Can anyone help advise me if Airbnb collects and remits the required  City of Santa Rosa taxes?  I find conflicting information on the site and the City is sending me demands for $ - I'm not sure how to respond until I'm clear what Airbnb is and isn't paying...any other hosts in santa rosa have advice or experience?  Thank you!

4 Replies 4
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Christine442 

Your listings shows taxes are not being charged.

Quoted from the HELP:

"Guests who book Airbnb listings that are located in the unincorporated areas of Sonoma County, CA (does not include the incorporated cities of Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Windsor) will pay the following tax as part of their reservation:

  • Transient Occupancy Tax: 12% of the listing price including any cleaning fee for reservations 30 nights and shorter. For detailed information, please visit the Sonoma County Transient Occupancy Tax website."

Hope this helps,

Emiel

Christine442
Level 3
Santa Rosa, CA

Yes, I read that too, but in another area it says something different.  Also, there is no way to charge the tax as a separate line item as required by tax code.  sending a special request does not mean the guest will remit payment, as the special request area of funds collection is optional for guests; they can remit or not depending on their willingness.  The problem this creates is that when using instant book, once a reservation is confirmed, it counts against hosts if we cancel based on refusal of guest to pay an additional fee in the resolution center.  If the tax is added to the room rate, that voilates the City's policy that it be a separate charge, and only functions to add more tax due from the host as it will show as a "gross receipt" since the room rate and tax amount are blended together.  So, you can see the problem is challenging.  If I use the "cleaning fee" area, that is fraud, because it's not a cleaning fee if it's a tax.  I want to follow the rules of Airbnb and the City, but it seems confusing.  I've reachecd out to other santa rosa hosts, but haven't heard anything back yet.  

 

I am having the exact same problem too. In my listing it says airbnb is collecting and remitting TOT but then in the help section it says for unincorporated area only, which I am in city. Following this. 

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Christine442 

In my country (and i guess whole EU) we can add taxes on the local (Dutch) Airbnb website and they will appear as separate  line(s) in the booking form. It's under menu option "local laws" and we can choose different taxes from a popup-window to add to the listing.

But i heard these options are not available in the US (for some reason i don't know....)

But on your listings Airbnb does not charge taxes to guests at this moment, which is in line with the help information.

Hope somebody from your area will reply with a proper solution,

Best regards,

Emiel