Florida: Walton County Tourist & Development Tax Not Collected by Airbnb from Guest.

Love-To-Stay-30A0
Level 1
Florida, United States

Florida: Walton County Tourist & Development Tax Not Collected by Airbnb from Guest.

Is anyone else experiencing this?:

 

Airbnbs new policy of collecting / remitting State & Local taxes on our behalf for some strange reason excludes our County; Walton County, Florida. I just spent at least an hour on the phone with Airbnb to discover they have only been collecting State Tax for our homes / reservations, which now leaves our company liable for the lost collection of 4% local taxes. The only 

 

Is anyone else here encountering this same issue? This is the message I just received from Airbnb customer service.

 

Devon J, Jan 24, 16:24 PST:

Hi Love,

If you need to add taxes to your rates, please clearly explain the tax in your listing description so that potential guests are aware of it and can budget accordingly.

While we recommend that hosts use the Special Offer tool to collect the tax, they can also choose to collect it in person upon arrival.

Airbnb’s ability to facilitate tax collection involves a number of factors, including discussions with tax authorities for the area—which could be at the city, county, state, or other jurisdictional level. We’ll let you know if an occupancy tax related feature becomes available for your listing. If you’d like to learn more, the Local Tax section of our Help Center has additional information: 

Best,

Devon

 

 

3 Replies 3

Yes, I just recieved notice on this.  There are places on the airbnb web site that say "to add a local tax go to Listing, Manage listing, Local Tax'.  Unfortunately, the links after "listing" do not appear as an option.  I have called Walton county and my guess is local rental agents have lobbied to prevent AirBnb and vrbo and homeaway from having agreements with Walton county.  This is a walton county issue as they will only enter into agreements with local rental agency or an individual.  There is no way to add the tax on Airbnb's site that I have found.  Also, FYI, every listing I checked charges the same 7% tax and no one appears to be collecting the extra 4% the local tourist development tax.  

 

If you find how to add the tax, please let me know.

I am running into the same problem in Osceola  County and I have spent hours trying to find a way to enter it but to no avail.

Matthew1015
Level 1
Kankakee, IL

Same problem here and everytime I call Airbnb I get a different answer.  Today I was told they ARE collecting for Walton Co.  But I don't think they are and I challenged that just to be told that he isn't an expert and I should call a tax advisor.  I've also been told to set up a 4% "community fee" in my listing which I have done, but I don't see where that's being added either.