South Carolina taxes - all covered, or just state?

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David259
Level 2
North Charleston, SC

South Carolina taxes - all covered, or just state?

On May 18, I received an email saying that Airbnb will begin collecting and remitting taxes in South Carolina starting June 1, 2016. I was very excited! I currently pay a fee to MyLodgeTax (Avalara) to handle tax reporting/payment to all the various state and local entities, and would love for Airbnb to handle that (for free). HOWEVER, when I emailed MyLodgeTax to cancel their service, they told me that "Airbnb is actually only paying the taxes collected by the state of South Carolina, but there's a separate accommodations tax collected by/paid to Charleston County."

Is it true that Airbnb isn't handling ALL taxes? That would be really, really frustrating!!

 

As part of my contract with MyLodgeTax, they handle the following taxes, which add up to 13.5% total:

South Carolina Sales Tax  5.0%

South Carolina Accommodations Tax  2.0%

Charleston County Accommodations Tax  2.0%

Charleston County Local Option Tax  1.0%

Charleston County Education Tax  1.0%

Charleston County Transportation Tax  0.5%

North Charleston Accommodations Tax 2.0%

 

I would STRONGLY prefer for Airbnb to handle all these taxes; a "halfway" approach (only doing state-level taxes but not local) will just complicate things, and force me to keep using MyLodgeTax, or else do a lot more manual tax paperwork. Ugh. It would also mean that realistically, a lot of folks simply won't pay the local taxes that they owe. Double ugh. Please help out us SC hosts who want to do the right thing, Airbnb!

1 Best Answer
Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

To answer the question about where to add additional taxes in Airbnb, on the Airbnb desktop web page go to Account/Professional Hosting Tools and turn them on. After you do that, you will have a section to add any extra taxes under your listing/Pricing and Availability/Fees/Taxes.

 

For instance, in my case in SC, Airbnb collects and remits 7% to the state. In addition, I am required to pay an additional 3% locally, so I indicate that percentage in a field in the Taxes section described above.

 

In this way, I collect the 3% from the guest, and then once a month I remit 3% of my gross income to my local government.

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49 Replies 49

Did you ever figure out how to fix this?  I'm having the same issue.  I submitted feedback on this issue to Airbnb.

T60
Level 2
South Carolina, United States

I found out last week that Airbnb has been charging/collecting more than the SC 10% occupancy/accomodation tax.  I've escalated 2 tickets on it but no response yet.  Has anyone else encountered this?

Melissa943
Level 2
South Carolina, United States

I am brand new to AirB&B and I'm trying to understand the collection of taxes. It appears that I do not need to pay South Carolina State Accommodations taxes because I have less that six bedrooms and I live in my home while it is being rented. I found this information on the SCDOR website. Does AirB&B collect State taxes only? If I'm exempt what's the best way to contact AirB&B to explain this?

Melissa

Lillie13
Level 2
Leland, NC

Can someone on this thread tell me how to calculate what we owe to the county?  Are you adding the additional percentage to your nightly rate?

Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

To answer the question about where to add additional taxes in Airbnb, on the Airbnb desktop web page go to Account/Professional Hosting Tools and turn them on. After you do that, you will have a section to add any extra taxes under your listing/Pricing and Availability/Fees/Taxes.

 

For instance, in my case in SC, Airbnb collects and remits 7% to the state. In addition, I am required to pay an additional 3% locally, so I indicate that percentage in a field in the Taxes section described above.

 

In this way, I collect the 3% from the guest, and then once a month I remit 3% of my gross income to my local government.