Important: Airbnb will collect and remit occupancy taxes in Tennessee State

[Sarah1600]

Does this mean I don't have to send the monthly occupancy tax return to the Metro Collections Office anymore? 

Hotel Occupancy Privilege Tax

Metropolitan Code of Laws

Title 5; Chapter 5.12

[Sarah1600]

As instructed here: https://www.nashville.gov/Finance/Office-of-the-Treasurer/Collections/Short-Term-Rental-Occupancy-Ta...

[Lorna170]

@Sarah1600   As I replied in another post by a Tennessee host with the same question:   I am not in Tennessee, but in North Carolina.  Air collects the taxes for my state, county and municipality and have done so since 2019.   I still file my monthly reports just as if I were collecting the taxes.  I attach a letter that states that the taxes owed have been collected by Air (and other OTAs) and I now owe zero tax.  This was at the recommendation of my accountant and attorney.  So far, so good.

[William1414]

So you are saying now in Metro Nashville ( Davidson County Tn) we still need to submit the monthly hotel  occupancy form  but claim exemption because Airbnb is collecting it a paying them? I’ve been sending in payments as well ,so  are they double dipping ? I called  Airbnb for an explanation  but it is still unclear . Any info or  insight would be appreciated. Thanks 

[Sarah1600]

@Lorna170 Thank you this is what I was wondering. Airbnb's new documentation in the Help section says they are collecting and remitting these taxes now as one lump sum, without individual details, which means the city wouldn't know if my taxes were being paid. Your method makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll try that and see. Airbnb support is basically useless at answering my questions about this stuff.

@William1414 Did you get the email with the subject line I mentioned? It went out in December. From what I understand it does seem that as of January 1st they are remitting those monthly tax returns for hosts in Tennessee now (as they seem to have started doing in other states over the past few years). But Airbnb support is terrible and can't confirm anything for me. I emailed one person from the Nashville.gov site that was linked from the STRP permit page, but I might just go ahead and email every single person on that page until I get an answer. I have not sent in my monthly occupancy tax return for January since I want to make sure they're not double-dipping, like you said. 

[William1414]

Yes I did get that email . I also have not mailed in my occupancy tax return for January . I’m trying to get an answer on exactly what to do before sending it in . I may send it in with the amount Listed in the   Transaction payment details  for each booking in January,  and submit a copy of that payment deducted from my account with Airbnb,  so they know it was collected and submitted to them by Airbnb . However I also feel that Metro would  suspend My account without warning if given the chance . 

[William1414]

Correction...suspend my permit 

[Sarah1600]

@William1414 I agree. Feels like they're just waiting for us to make a slip, ha! I just checked and I'm not seeing a new column on the detailed transaction report showing a new kind of tax being collected by Airbnb -- also not a new line item showing up on the transaction details on the reservation. There's an "Occupancy Taxes" column, but that is for the "occupancy" tax that Airbnb has always collected. So what the heck is Airbnb talking about???

[Sarah1600]

@William1414 I went ahead and sent an inquiry to every person on this page: https://www.nashville.gov/Finance/Contact-Us.aspx

[William1414]

 

[Sarah1600]

Got this from the Nashville Treasurer’s Office! Looks like we are off the hook, although I like the idea of continuing to send paperwork each month.

Sarah,

There is in fact a new process in place.

Airbnb is now under contract with the State of Tennessee’s Department of Revenue to collect local occupancy taxes on your behalf. This contract requires them to directly pay taxes to the state and then the state will be in charge of submitting payment to the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

What this means is that starting with the February 20th, tax due date, Airbnb will make tax payments for you and there is no action on your part. Note that if you rent your place outside of a major marketplace (Facebook Marketplace, Craigs List, Classifieds, through a friend, etc.), you will have to manually pay those taxes to our Collections Office.

Note that the tax payment due January 20th for stays through December 31, 2020 still have to be manually submitted to the Collections Office, copied here. Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Collections Office at (615) 862-6215. Our office hours are M-F 8:00am to 4:30pm.

Regards,

Michell Bosch, CTP, CFA

Treasurer

[Sarah1600]

Here’s another confirmation from someone in the collections office:

 Good Evening Sarah,

Finance Department Collections Office Notices

Tennessee House Bill 1830: Local Occupancy Tax Collections for registered marketplaces will begin on January 1, 2021 with collections starting on the February 20 due date. For more information, go to the Tennessee Department of Revenue’s website on Local Occupancy Tax.

https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/local-occupancy-tax.html

This House Bill 1830 began January 1, 2021, Reporting month January which is due February 20th 2021. Your marketplace will remit to the Tennessee Department of Revenue your occupancy tax on your behalf.

Any and all payments submitted to us you were correct to do so because we were collecting the Hotel Occupancy Tax. However reporting month December due January 20th2021 you will still need to remit to our office.

I hope this information is helpful, let me know If you have any further questions or help.

Thank you,

Danniela Machado

Finance Department

Office-of-the-Treasurer

Metro Collections Office

[William1414]

Great ! It’s confirmed then . Thanks 

[Jesse8]

@William1414 @Sarah1600 This has been super helpful - thanks for all your help.  I sent in my monthly Hotel and Occupancy Tax forms this year and they responded telling me that AirBnB was remitting the tax.  So sorry to beat this drum to death, but are you all still sending in the report,  just to be safe?  Like you all said Metro is notorious for revoking permits at the slightest mistake or oversight - so I'm just concerned there is a loophole they're not sharing just so they can revoke permits at will.  Call me paranoid, but Metro and the City Council have been 110% against AirBnB the whole time I've been hosting - I'm sure it's a matter of time before they find a way to drive us all out of business.