Tax Collection in NYC

[Teres0]

Hello Host Community,

Airbnb does not collect taxes in New York City. My only recourse is to ask guests after they have booked to pay taxes. I have to use the special request tool in order to collect taxes. 

Unfortunately, I think the practice of asking for money after the guest has booked is not right. It makes everyone uncomfortable. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to better handle this? 

NYC hosts, how are you collecting taxes or is this not a concern? I ask because I’ve reached out to Airbnb and they only recommend that I speak to a tax specialist on my own.

Appreciate your input. 

[Delphine-And-Michael0]

Are you talking about tax collection for a home sharing or an entire listing?

In NYC I believe you have to register an entire listing as a hotel and follow hotel tax collection.  Your accountant should tell you as local NYC regulations have changed over the last 3 years quite a bit.  Initially NYC was leaving one and two family buildings alone in terms of hotel regulation, I believe now you must follow all the codes required of a hotel, such as a central fire alarm, sprinkers, etc.

Below is the link for transient homesharing your accountant should be able to explain the tax requirements that spells exactly what constitutes a home share.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/enforcement/illegal-short-term-rentals.page

[Mark116]

How crazy that the NYS government is interested in policing whether there are any locks on the doors inside an apartment or house.  Don't we all have locks on the bathroom?  It is rare to find a city or state that is more regulation frenzied than New Jersey, but it looks like in this case New York has really outdone itself.

[Delphine-And-Michael0]

NYC initially  stated they were  going to leave one and two family buildings unregulated.

Because of the pushback from platforms to not recognize the current regulations the city decided to basically make all entire listings illegal unless they are a registered hotel.  If someone has a lawyer that reads the regulations differently let me know.

Also for homesharing the city decided to cap at 2 guests making all larger home shares not compliant under 30 days.

So in NYC doing a search for homeshares that are 2 guests and under leaves you the starting point of possible compliant listings.

On February 19th NYC subpoenaed Airbnb and homeaway for the detailed information on all listings.  The judge that blocked the most recent law stated that NYC can simply get this data by issuing this subpoena.

What doesn’t help matters is that Airbnb states that they limited hosts to one listing voluntarily.  However this is not one of the NYC restrictions so NYC states once we get your data we will decide what regulations get put in place.  I would have thought the easiest restriction would be to limit the number of days you can transient rent to a 120 days a year for example that should put apartments back on the long term market and for those that choose not to are not going to rent their space out anyway to long term tenants.

Jersey City I think is relatively AirBnb friendly; Hoboken Is not in general it does appear NJ has less regulations currently then NY.

[Teres0]

Thanks for that information. I guess I'll have to register. The other half of my question is how to handle this with guests. It doesn't seem right that after someone books, that I have to reach out and ask for additional money for taxes. How have you been handling it?

[Delphine-And-Michael0]

You could incorporate it in your nightly rate and explain the breakdown in your house rules.

Part of the problem is AirBnb and NYC are fighting each other, AirBnb should automatically add the hotel tax.  I do not think that Airbnb will do that until some resolution with the city is finalized and from what NYC has stated that will not happen until they get the data they have subpoenaed then tell AirBnb what will be acceptable.

Registering as a hotel to get a compliant “entire listing” is not easy in terms of regulations that are required also you may get pushback because of the location of the townhouse.  I do not think there is a way to register a space as a hotel in an apartment building because of the multidwelling law.