Tax - PA, AirBnB, etc - General Help and Questions - Forums

JTVRs

Registered: 6/25/18

Tax - PA, AirBnB, etc Jul 7, 2019 11:27 AM

Reply
Quote

Listing sites are required in PA (including my county) to collect the hotel taxes. We have total 9% tax (6% sales and the 3% hotel tax).

So, Airbnb does the 3%. I THINK they do not collect the sales tax, but their website makes it a maze to find clear answers. And of course BDC, FK, VRBO...

So does my Ownerrez collect the 6% sales tax part I need to collect when managing each channel? I know I would need to remit, this is just a collection question.

BlueMtnCabins

Registered: 6/6/16

Re: Tax - PA, AirBnB, etc Jul 8, 2019 10:59 AM

Reply
Quote

In our case, we have 9.75% state and county sales that AirBNB DOES collect, and 3% county lodging that Airbnb DOES NOT collect. What I do, is after guest paid to Airbnb, I crate a "resolution request" on Airbnb for the 3% tax amount. Airbnb does not apply CC fee or service fee to it, but it is a manual process. I think trying to collect tax outside of Airbnb (i.e via billing via Ownerrez) may get you suspended if some guest reports you to Airbnb as it is against Airbnb rules.

Chris Hynes

Registered: 10/19/12

Re: Tax - PA, AirBnB, etc Jul 8, 2019 12:08 PM

Reply
Quote

Yes, OwnerRez will factor in the tax as you import bookings via channel bridge. First of all, configure any taxes remitted by a listing site as "everything but" on the listing site criteria. So for the 3% Airbnb remits you'd set listing site criteria to Everything but Airbnb. That way it won't be handled as a guest charge.

Then you have to decide how you're going to collect the other 6% (and make sure Airbnb's not remitting it). You can either do a resolution request like @BlueMtnCabins is doing, or you can build it into your rates (what I do). Pros to @BlueMtn's method are your rates look more competitive on a search. Pros to building it into rates are that it's simpler and you don't have to do resolution requests for every damn booking. Once you pick a method, go into the channel settings and set the tax to be either added or included in rate. Then when you channel bridge, it'll calculate the correct tax amount.

I have heard of some folks just sending a payment link instead of a resolution request, but I'm not sure on the Airbnb policy on that -- their policies seem to change every day depending on who you talk to.