Tax Analysts contains news, analysis, and commentary on hotel occupancy tax rates, including primarily U.S. state and local tax issues involving short-term rentals, bed and breakfasts, hotels, motels, and electronic commerce driven services.
Hotel occupancy tax issues center on what entity is required to remit the tax, which is imposed, generally by localities, based on the nightly rate charged by facilities providing temporary lodging for tourists and other individuals needing short-term lodging.
While hotel and occupancy tax rates are typically a local taxation issue, some state departments of revenue handle enforcement and collection activities.
A major source of uncertainty currently under scrutiny in the field of hotel and occupancy tax is how to treat the sharing economy and the use of short-term rental websites. The question for the sharing economy is whether the website providing the booking of a rental owes tax or whether the non-hotel owner of the lodging owes the hotel and occupancy tax.
Specifically, Tax Analysts covers cases and legal developments involving the electronic commerce economy including online travel companies and what entity is liable to collect hotel and occupancy taxes and on what amount the tax is due. Also, Tax Analysts covers local treatment of sharing economy websites such as Airbnb and other online short-term rental providers.
Major developments in the hotel and occupancy tax rate area that Tax Analysts has covered include the Hawaii state supreme court case Matter of Travelocity.com LP v. Dir. of Taxation; California’s state supreme court case In re Transient Occupancy Tax Cases; and online travel company legislation.
