Of course we can solve the deficiency on our own, each private owner spending a few days to research the issuue and to read the Internet, then a few hours to set up our own routine (maybe it's not correct, because we are all reading different sources), and then a few minutes each booking to send that extra clarification to the guest...
When I imagine how much time and effort would be saved for all individual owners by just doing in in one central place (such as Airbnb) it's mind boggling. If Airbnb cares
To me it's not complicated at all. We don't have to explain to the guest that "we need to add the GET to the gross total and then tax the sum...". All we need is to state explicitely the total of the taxes passed on. In this article by tax preparers on Oahu:
http://www.taxservicesoahu.com/passing-along-hawaii-ge-tax-customers/
it's explained that "To bridge the gap between what a business collects from their customers and what is payed to the state, many businesses add 4.16% to each sale on the Neighbor Islands and 4.712% to each sale on Oahu."
On Maui we just calculate 13.42% (9.25% TAT and 4.166% GET, the sum rounded up to 13.42). In my 15-years experience of renting two condos on Maui, nobody ever questioned this number, because it's the same number everyone else is using on Maui. Some people asked to do away with this completely, but's that's another issue 🙂
In your case on Oahu, the total rate is probably around 13.97%. Since we don't have properties there, I don't know exactly, but it should be one common number that everyone uses for our particular purpose - to calculate the GET + TAT on transient accommodations.
We also have a rental house in Tahoe and the occupancy tax there is 10%, but that tax applies to both the rent AND any fees we collect up front. What VRBO does, they just ask what's your occupancy tax. For us, it's 13.42% in Hawaii and 10% in Tahoe. Then for each fee we set up, they ask if it's taxable. For Hawaii, I say none of the fees are taxable, and I can price the tax into the fee. It's not me who reports and pays those taxes, so I don't have to itemize them. For Tahoe, we only have a cleaning fee and I check that it's taxable at 10%. That's it. Takes minutes to set up, and saves tons of time for owners and makes it clear to the guests.
Anybody from Airbnb reading this? Could you please make it happen for us?