Colorado lodging and sales taxes

[Michael491]

We are Denver hosts now registering our room according to the new city Short Term Rental laws. All has gone well so far, despite the overly bureaucratic rules and the general discouragement of business, which we find remarkable. I see that Air BnB now has arrangements to collect taxes directly for those hosting in Colorado Springs, Golden and Steamboat. Does anyone know if talks are in the works to get Denver into the automated system, obviously it would be a great convenience for the many Denver hosts who are trying to be compliant. Failing that, can other Colorado hosts tell me how they physically collect the local Lodging and state Sales taxes? Do you simply add it to the room rate? Or do you try to collect directly from guests upon arrival? 

[Rosemary18]

My costs for local and state taxes are included in rental price. I explain that on my listing. 

[Logan-and-Family0]

Hi Mike!  Looks like I found your post! lol

Yea I saw the page your referring to with Colorado Springs, Golden, and steamboat springs enumerated... very odd, you would think they would just say for all of colorado, but they don't, so I guess maybe we do need to get state sales tax license : (  

I think this brings it to:

state sales tax,

occupational priveledge tax,

and lodgers tax

Is that your general consensus as well?

[Leesa6]

So we are new to Airbnb and I'm not sure how the sales tax works. Our condo is in Grand county near winter park. Do I need to charge the tax? How do I know the amount? I'm just learning all this and I don't want to miss any important steps. 

Thanks!

[Leah31]

So I just got an email notice that Airbnb will be collecting/remitting taxes in all of Colorado starting Feb 1st.  I am currently collecting sales tax and remitting on my own.  Do you all know if I need to still pay my own taxes on the stays that happen after February but are already booked?  I haven't received this money yet but Airbnb has collected it I think.  I would assume Airbnb is not going to go back to guests who have already booked and collect taxes from them.  I'm assuming any "bookings" after Feb 1st I will not have to collect/remit tax on my own.

Is that all your assumption?

Leah

[Leah31]

I should clarify that all mine are all short term rentals of a 2nd home.  When I research collecting sales tax when I started advertising site I was pretty sure you had to collect sales tax.

[Brooke42]

Hey Leah!

    What are the rules of a second home? My current property is registered and is my residence but I am in the process, possibly of buying another property that I will live in and I would like to rent out that as a short term and list my current property as long and short term. How does that work? If this current property is my permanent residence but will change, can I still rent it out? Just wanting to cover my bases and make sure that I can still rent this property out through Airbnb legally. Thanks for your help! I'm having a baby in the next month and trying to get this all squared away! 🙂

B

[McKenna2]

It is my understanding that you cannot Airbnb/short term rental a second property if you do not permanently dwell on the premises.  If you have a carriage house but live in the front house, that is okay.  The new regulations are for prohibiting people from buying houses just to put up as a short term rental if they are not living there.  In order to register the property with the city, you have to mark if you reside on the premises.

[Georgia10]

Leah, we have the same situation - a vacation home in Snowmass Village that we rent on a short-term basis. I got the email today from Airbnb saying they would start charging guests sales/lodging taxes for rentals made on/after Feb 1, 2017. Frankly I'm glad they are doing this. In addition, I just talked to someone in SMV town management to confirm the amount that they understand Airbnb will charge the guest. For SMV the total is 12.8% which includes various state and area taxes. I just wanted to make sure both sides were communicating. 

I saw a previous question (could be another discussion) about who to use if you are collecting the tax yourself. We have successfully used Avalara/MyLodgeTax (formerly HotSpot Tax Services).... www.mylodgetax.com   I will still use them for my guests from other sources, such as VRBO. In those situations, I charge and collect 12.8%, Avalara collects from me quarterly, and they pay the various state/local tax authorities. They also get the annual tax license for SMV which I display for guests so they can make sure I'm not just charging extra rental. 

Georgia

[Tyler29]

Is your listing in Denver?

[Kim203]

I am in unincorporated Jefferson County. My AirBNB listing is for a room in my home

[Tyler29]

Sounds in Colorado its only the city of Denver that charges the 10.75% tax on top of Colorado tax.  

[Kati21]

Kim, what has your experience been with renting in Unincorporated JeffCO? I'm also there but didn't find anything relating to taxes for renting my 2nd bedroom short term. Do you have any resources you can share?

thank you!

Kati

[Lottie9]

Yes, that seems like a reaonable presumption.

[Kim203]

Received notification that AIRBNB is going to charge Colorado Sales tax on all rental made through AirBNB in 2017. When I read the Colorado Dept of Revenue FYI Sales 11 document on collecting sales tax it does not pertain to a private residence. Is there somewhere on  the AirBNB site where a host can waive this option?