If you are going to host in Palm Beach County, Airbnb’s Palm Beach County page is completely inaccurate. So is their Florida page. They do NOT PAY ALL TAXES in PALM BEACH COUNTY. The Palm Beach County Tax Assessor also does not tell you everything that you need to know to be compliant. Here is what they should tell you:
LICENSURE:
To meet all government and tax requirements, you will need the following:
STATE:
Get a Vacation Rental license from the Florida Department of Department of Business & Professional Regulation, commonly known as a “DBPR.” You will need it at your city licensure, in most cases.
https://www.myfloridalicense.com/intentions2.asp?chBoard=true&SID=&boardid=200&professionid=2007
COUNTY:
You will need both a Tourist Development Tax (TDT), and a COUNTY business tax receipt number (LBTR). Do not mess up, as many of us have, and assume that your city Business Tax Receipt is what is asked for by Airbnb. Here, it is the TDT, and the LBTR. More bad news: The counties, as a rule, will let you get a TDT without even telling you that you need the LBTR. You do. Get one. FILE BOTH OF THESE WITH AIRBNB. They DO NOT want your City BTR, even though it is a legal requirement of operation.
CITY
You will need to get a license from your city. Most require:
• A copy of your DBPR;
• A copy of the deed to your property showing you as owner;
• A check by the Code Compliance department. These can often take time to arrange. My city was backed up for months. Leave yourself time.
• A check by the Zoning Department to make sure that you are zoned, regardless of whatever the law says about vacation rentals on these checks.
Your airbnb cannot host experiences in your home, unfortunately, in Palm Beach County, at least. If you take people out and about, or to a studio, or something off-site, and do anything that requires the collection of sales tax, you’ll also want to get a state sales tax permit.
COLLECTING TAXES:
Even though Airbnb currently tells you that they collect all taxes in Florida, they do not collect all local taxes. If you live in Palm Beach County, for example, the Palm Beach County Tax Collector refuses to take Airbnb’s bulk tax checks. You must collect the 6% Palm Beach County Tax yourself. Check with your county to see if they accept the bulk payments from Airbnb. If they do not, you will need to file, and pay them yourselves.
Unfortunately, at this time, Airbnb does not provide a line-item for counties where it does not collect the local tax. Here is the fix that was suggested by Airbnb support:
In your listing, under the Pricing Tab, scroll down to Standard Fees & Charges. Under Community Fee, set it to the percentage that your county charges. If you have a community, like an HOA, that also charges fees, set your rate to cover both that, and the county tax.
Paying Your Own Florida County Tax (Where required by law):
It’s not enough to file your TDT, in Palm Beach County, perhaps others. You must log in to the County’s TDT payment system, and file your report before the monthly deadlines, EVEN IF YOU MADE ZERO DOLLARS on Airbnb. You will not be charged for a no-money month, but they will FINE YOU if you do not file the report.
DO also watch your TDT authority. They can put on months that you did not own/operate your vacation rental, on occasion. If you see this, DO contact them to have it corrected, or you may end up being hit for penalties, and then spend significantly more time and effort trying to fix it.
Brian Ross