Occupancy Taxes Remittance

[Pauletta0]

I don't see that anyone has gotten a clear answer on this topic.  Airbnb started collecting Texas State Hotel Tax in May.  Not all of my guests had it collected.  My bigger question is how this money that was collected is being remitted to the State.  Q2 taxes will need to be remitted next month so I need to understand how Airbnb is submitting this tax on behalf of my company so I don't get a penalty for non remittance.  

[Linda108]

@Pauletta0  When Air BNB collected occupancy tax in my city, my city could answer what the process was.  Have you approached the Texas State Tax collection department?

[Kelly149]

@Pauletta0 You need to track who hasn't paid (reserved prior to May 1) and then pay for their tax. All reservations after may 1 ABB will pay directly. Best I can tell, none of those payments will be attributed to you in any direct way but the state will assume that they are receiving the proper tax from all ABB rentals. 

One thing that you should note. If you have reservations that we're booked prior to May 1, if you adjust them in any way now that it is after may 1, ABB will ask the guest to pay tax. 

[Kelly149]

To all my English teachers ever, yes, I know the difference between were and we're, but ABB software does not 😞

[Linda108]

@Kelly149  not to worry.  Most of us have had odd, incorrect and funny autofil attributed to us.  Some more than others!

[Maria1415]

@Kelly149  Love your answer, I just don't think the State Gov of TEXAS will buy that.

So the way I interpret your message, is "Hey, don't pay the State Hot Tax anymore, AIRBNB is handling it."  Yet, in my earnings summary, I have 3 reservations showing tax separately, and 12 reservations showing nothing.

This is July thru Sept completed reservations.

I love it that AIRBNB is on the hook for all of it, according to your advice.

Does anyoone kow how to get AIRBNBN involved in this messy issue that all Texan AIRBNB Hosts are wrestling with.

If the State comes after us, we'll just blame it all on AIRBNBN, and they can pay the fines.. what does everyone think??

[Kelly149]

@Maria1415 if you click the little question mark on your gross earnings tab next to the occupancy taxes line, it says "collected from the guest and remitted to taxing authorities on your behalf"

So, if there is an amount there then it has been paid by abb for you and that particular rental gets left off of your state HOT. If there is no tax listed there then that reservation was made before they started collecting tax and you need to pay the tax yourself. Either way, this is ONLY the state tax and if your city also requires tax then you still need to collect that separately.

When I did my Q3 taxes, I had all my homeaway rentals and then 1 abb reservation that was made prior to 5/1. All the other abb rentals get left off entirely.

I'm sure Texas has picked up a great deal of revenue by collecting directly from abb and bypassing all the hosts who never paid HOT even tho this had made it a little obnoxious for those of us who always were paying our taxes correctly. I think they accomplished their mission by going after ABB direct and will be happy to leave us little actors alone.

There are several help center articles addressing tax collection specificially if you still have more questions.

[Maria1415]

Thanks Kelly, strange way to indicate that the taxes are paid.   clicking on a question mark....

I came to that conclusion, that basically the ones with no tax, were probably made prior to May 1st.

I did find this nice link, on the Texas Gov Comptroller's web site, that explained it quite well.

https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/hotel/airbnb-faq.php#

I wish AIRBNB would have posted this.

later,

Maria

[Mimi33]

I am in the process of filing my Texas occupancy tax report on-line. Am I only supposed to show total room receipts or total taxable receipts for the rentals prior to May 1st + those that were booked on another site? If I actually enter the total of all the rentals in the quarter, including those that AirBnb collected on, it calculates the total tax due including those that AirBnb paid. I don't see anyway to indicate that they should have paid a portion. Any ideas?