Taxing issue THIS is urgent! Florida Hosts!

[Carmen-And-Jim0]

OK a fellow Florida host called the state of florida about AirBnB collecting the 6 percent and they were told from thier local office of STATE of florida that because AIRBNB justs gives a lump sum to the state of florida and does not give the individual amounts, Tax id number of who the property belong to, etc. They do not know what you reported.

MEANING: if you don't want a aduit you have to collect the 6% again and report and get dinged on your listing.....I am having a all day phone call with Alvara, Air, and state of florida , tomorrow since my phone calls to the state ALSO stated if I am Licensed and have a tax ID I must report and file taxes for the month of confusing December.

I will convey what either me and the other florida host has resolved with the state of Florida. Thanks God Air is not collecting Miami taxes for now.

[Clare0]

Hi Carmen and Jim, you should post on the Miami forum.  Click on the menu and scroll down to Cities and click on Miami.  There you will find Florida hosts who can give better input than the hosts here.  

 I'm not a Florida resident nor do I know anything about reporting in Florida but it seems to me that if Airbnb collected the Florida taxes from the guests at the time the reservation was booked, there is no need for individual hosts to report it separately. 

[Joni-B--Michael-And-Will0]

Carmen I'm in Florida and Claire is correct to say we don't have to accept it call your county your County Tax Collector will tell you you're better off calling the County than the state

... in fact we're not supposed to report to say unless we do individual personal host and collect the tax same with the county

Because I asked my County and my state which is Florida

[Karen1]

@Carmen-And-Jim0, Please keep me posted on anything you find out! I have posted elsewhere that Airbnb was not able to answer my questions and they told me to call the State Tax office. When I did, I talked with two different officials, neither of whom had ever heard of Airbnb! So, they too were of no help.  What are we to do??  I do not want to collect taxes if Airbnb is doing it...but, I also was told that they will not be reporting our individual amounts, only a lump sum tax of all Airbnb business in Florida.  In Florida, we are supposed to report on a monthly basis even if no tax was collected for that month.  Do I report zero amount collected by me, even though Airbnb collected my tax?? How can we elevate our concerns up to someone in the Airbnb Tax department?

[Clare0]

Perhaps @Lizzie0 can find someone or a help article in Airbnb-land that can clarify this issue for you.  But, if Airbnb is collecting directly from the guest at the time of the reservation (i.e. you never receive the tax money to begin with) seems to me that the burden of reporting/paying on a monthly basis falls on Airbnb.  The host would be out of the loop. 

My situation is different in my county.  Airbnb does not collect the tax so the burden falls on me to pay/report monthly.  I adjust the nightly price to cover this extra expense.

I'm very interested to find out what the answer is so please re-post when you know!

[Denis3]

I too am at a loss.

I have emailed AirBNB and there is no response or clarification.

If AirBNB doesn't want to answer the questions, maybe they shouldn't be making these attempts to "steamline" the process until they can give more information to those of us it affects.

Some clarity would be nice.

[Joni-B--Michael-And-Will0]

I would have suggest that you contact somebody else and talk to them in that department cuz the person you're currently talking to may not know everything I have run into this before and the state they'll tell you different things cuz not everybody knows everything but there is a man in the state that's been there a long time and he knows his stuff you're not supposed to be signing up with the state and telling them anything if Airbnb is paying your taxes it's not required same thing with the county they have all your information they've got your number and airbnb's got your number too.

[Karen1]

There is a lengthy but interesting discussion on this subject at the website Air Hosts Forum dot com. Search Tax Collection in Florida. Basically, I learned that I should still report my transient rental income each month, but indicate the sales amount that Airbnb collected tax for in the Exempt Sales column. Then for those bookings made before the December 1 cutoff, I would submit the tax I collected (and not Airbnb) as I normally would. Hope this makes sense.

[Joni-B--Michael-And-Will0]

I was told that by someone who had been there not very long and then when I found this gentleman who'd been there for a long time he said there was no need for me to report it they had my number Airbnb has my number and it all taken care of it's going to your number there does not throwing all this money in an envelope and mailing it to the state going hey here's your tax they're more organized in that they have to be....

[Karen1]

@Carmen-And-Jim0, @Denis3, @Clare0

I have called the Super Host line and I have tweeted the Airbnb Help and I have not yet received a satisfactory reply to my specific question. They say they will research it. (I also have a question into the FL Dept of Revenue. If everyone would tweet the help line, maybe would could finally get this question answered. On twitter, send a Direct Message to @AirbnbHelp. 

Here is the basic question:

As a Florida Host, do I need to report my Transient Rental Sales to FL DOR even though Airbnb is collecting the Sales Tax?  The FL DOR has told several hosts that we must associate our tax ID to any funds collected in order to receive proper credit. If the funds are not associated with our tax IDs, then we will be open for audit and possible fines.  How do we do this without paying the tax ourselves, thus double taxation? Please advise!

[Todd99]

AirBnb should stay out of the tax paying business. The potiental for corruption is undeniable if they do not associate tax ID numbers with funds. In my case, I am supposed to pay 12.5% tax to Florida but Airbnb only collects 7.5% and they do not a have a good system to collect the other 5% ... This is ridiculus. 

[Karen1]

Todd,  you are replying to a post that was made over a year and a half ago. I have learned so much about the Airbnb's taxing ability. 

First, I am happy that Airbnb collects and pays our Florida state sales tax. They also collect any discrectionary tax applicable to your county, thus the 7.5%.  Because they do it, I don't have to ask my guests for this tax.

However, Airbnb is not allowed to collect the county's Tourist Development Tax (also known as the bed tax) in counties where the County Tax Collector will not agree to it.  So, in counties like mine, Saint Johns, I have to collect and submit the Tourist Development Tax myself.  In counties like Broward, hosts don't have to collect or submit any taxes. Airbnb does it all for them . Sweet. 

If your county is not on this list (click on the link), then you should call your Tax Collector and complain. IMHO, the county would receive a lot more tax if they would just agree to let Airbnb collect it. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2301/occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-airbnb-in-florid...

[Karl136]

Karen,

I am in Osceola County.  So I am to collect and pay the 6% tourist tax.   Is the tax calculated by taking 6% of the Income listed in AirBnB transaction report for me?  Or assuming that includes the 6% tax, it is calculated as follows:

Tourist Tax =  0.06 * Income / (1+0.06)

Osceola still doesn't allow ABB to collect the tax.  so it's confusing.

Thanks,

Karl

[Karen1]

Hi, Karl.  Yes, this tax collecting is confusing! Airbnb should be collecting 7.5 % on your behalf because Osceola County adds a 1.5% Discretionary Sales Surtax to the Florida Sales tax. 

Since Osceola's Tourist Development Tax (TDT) is 6% and Airbnb does not collect it, it is your responsibility to collect and submit it. Calculate the tax on the total accommodation charge plus cleaning fees and any extra person fees.  TDT = (Total Room Charge + Cleaning + Extra Fees) x .06.  Also mention in your listing that you will be collecting 6% Osceola county tax upon the guest's arrival, if you choose to collect this tax.

The other option is to absorb the tax in your nightly rate and pay the tax from your gross earnings. Here is where I may lose you... 

I absorb the tax in my earnings, but I do not like to pay tax on tax paid (double taxation).  I say Airbnb’s Gross Earnings (GE) INCLUDES the county's tax, so I reduce this amount by the county's TDT percentage (in your case it's 6%). This gives me the county's Gross Rental Receipts (GRR). My formula goes like this: GE = 106/100 GRR. Solve for GRR by multiplying each side by 100/106, which is 100/106GE = GRR.  Then, find the county's tax by multiplying GRR by 6%. 

For example, say Gross Earnings in February was $930 (including the cleaning fee).  The formula is 930 = 106/100 GRR.  GRR = (100 x 930) / 106, which equals 877.36. (This is the Gross Rental Receipts to report to the county.) Then, multiply 877.36 by .06, which equals 52.64 (the Tourist Dev Tax to submit to the county). To verify this is correct, add 877.36 to 52.64 and you get $930 (Airbnb's Gross Earnings).

Hope this is clear and makes sense to you.  Good luck.

[Karen1]

Karl,

Be sure you use the Gross Earnings figure in the Transaction History report that you find by using the "Gross Earnings" tab. Set the dates for the month you want to report, and click on Download CSV.  The CSV download from the  "Completed Payouts" tab does not give you this figure (but you can calculate it by adding the total "Paid Out" to the total "Host Fee".)