It seems everyone has spoken to Ms. Desimone at MDOR...and I hope you are all correct about it not being our responsibility. But:
1. I can see the financial breakout for guests that just booked with me yesterday for August and there is no reference put to them about an occupancy tax due - and their economics do not reflect a tax paid as part of their booking.
2. Since I have yet to collect any, that would mean that Airbnb is currently the only participant here who could be doing it.
3. If that is true, are they paying it themselves as an organization directly to MDOR? I would seriously doubt that…they are a private company on track to go public and wouldn’t want to show that cash drain. And even if it were the case, how would they know where to remit it on my behalf to make sure I'm appropriately credited with the Commonwealth? I know the specifics of my MDOR tax account info but Airbnb does not as of yet – and, moreover, their site wouldn't take that information from me when I tried to input it. Did you all successfully register your MDOR Tax Id Numbers with Airbnb? Maybe it’s just me…
4. I just had (last 72 hours) a conversation with Airbnb both live on the phone and also through their customer service portal where they told me that I needed to inform guests about the tax, collect it, and remit it.
5. There seems to be continuing disconnect here and I can’t help but think that when push comes to shove, the State of Massachusetts is going to be looking for that money from the tax entities we all had to establish with MDOR to comply. Hope I’m wrong.