Stay tax requirements vary by city, county, region, state, and country. Stay Taxes can be levied on the cost of the stay or a per night or per person basis.
Property owners and managers are responsible for any taxes associated with renting a property, except in jurisdictions that require us to collect and remit stay tax for online bookings. For a list of these jurisdictions, check out: What stay taxes/lodging taxes do you collect and remit?
Topics covered in this article:
How we collect and remit stay taxHow to check if we collect and remit taxes for your property
How taxes are displayed in your dashboard
How to collect and remit additional taxes
Rental amounts that are subject to lodging taxes
Information we provide to jurisdictions
How to check what's been paid to your jurisdiction
Tax returns
Information travellers see about taxes
How we collect and remit stay tax
We collect and remit stay tax in required jurisdictions when rental bookings and payments are made online on our platform. We’ll notify you when we start to collect and remit stay tax in your area. In jurisdictions where we are liable, we collect lodging taxes from the traveller when they book, and we then remit the taxes to the appropriate taxing authority either monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Every property owner and manager is responsible for understanding and complying with the laws and regulations applicable to their property listing.
You're also responsible for collecting and remitting stay taxes when we're not liable to do so, including when the following circumstances apply:
- Your property was booked prior to and including the day before we began collecting and remitting stay tax in your property's jurisdiction.
- The booking is not made by using our online system.
- You use external software to integrate with our online system.
How to check if we collect and remit taxes for your property
To find out if we collect and remit stay tax for a specific property:- Log into your account.
- Click Calendar in the left navigation menu.
- Click Rates.
- Click on the gear for Rates settings.
- Click Taxes.
If you don't see any stay taxes listed, that means we aren't collecting this tax on your behalf and you remain responsible for collecting and remitting taxes from your guests.
To see a full list of jurisdictions in which we currently collect and remit taxes, click here.
How taxes are displayed in your dashboard
If we're collecting and remitting taxes on your property, there will be one or two sections shown under taxes:- The first section displays taxes we're obligated to collect from travellers and remit directly to your jurisdiction.
- The second section displays taxes for which you're liable. You may opt to have those taxes collected from travellers and sent to you to remit to your jurisdiction. This section only appears in select jurisdictions. We'll monitor the applicable tax rates for you so you can remit the proper amount of tax to your jurisdiction.
By continuing to accept bookings, you agree that you are registered as a taxpayer, and will remit any tax sent to you to the appropriate government agencies.
Upon inquiry or audit by any taxing jurisdiction, we may require you to provide your tax registration number and documentation that you remitted all taxes to the appropriate jurisdiction.
You cannot opt out of our collection and remittance of stay tax in jurisdictions where we are required by law to collect and remit or where we have an agreement with the tax authority.
How to collect and remit additional taxes
If we are collecting and remitting specific taxes for your property, it is possible that there are additional taxes for which you are responsible. We offer options for managing your taxes in select jurisdictions. However, if these options are not available in your jurisdiction, you'll have to collect this tax from your travellers separately. You can no longer add a tax through our tax settings page.For more information about tax collection options, including a list of jurisdictions in which they're currently available, please visit: How can I manage my lodging taxes?
To collect additional taxes from travelers you can do one of the following:
- Make an additional payment request for the tax
- Collect that tax from travellers on arrival
- Edit the quote to add the required tax and separately let the traveler know of the tax amount.
Rental amounts that are subject to lodging taxes
Each jurisdiction mandates different rules that determine what amounts are subject to stay taxes.Generally, taxes are applied to the rental amount (money or value) paid from the traveller, including any owner fees (like a cleaning fee or pet fee). Refundable damage deposits are generally not taxable but can become taxable in certain jurisdictions if the deposit is not fully refunded. Some jurisdictions require us to collect taxes on our service fee.
If your listing is located in North America, visit MyLodgeTax to learn more regarding the specific charges and fees that are taxable in your area.
Information we provide to jurisdictions
When a stay is booked and paid for through our platform in a jurisdiction where we're liable for lodging tax, we'll identify the amount of tax we have collected and will remit it to the jurisdiction.This tax is remitted on a tax return filed with the jurisdiction under the taxpayer account of HomeAway.com, Inc.
Your name, your jurisdiction tax ID, your company name, address, and/or other details specific to your property will not be identified on the tax return filing because the tax information provided identifies HomeAway.com, Inc. as the taxpayer. The transaction details may be made available to the taxing jurisdiction upon audit and pursuant to the appropriate legal process.
If your jurisdiction contacts you and wants information related to taxes that we are collecting and remitting, please refer the taxing authority to us. You should check the reporting requirements for your specific jurisdiction(s) or consult your tax professional to avoid penalties for not reporting.
How to check what's been paid to your jurisdiction
This information can be found through the lodging tax report in your partner dashboard. To view this report, click Reservation manager from within your account, select Financial reporting, then click the Lodging tax tab. Note that you will only see the Lodging tax tab if you've had at least one lodging tax transaction on a prior booking.Tax returns
You may still need to file a tax return after we begin collecting and remitting tax in your area. In many jurisdictions, you are required to submit a tax return for stay taxes even if the amount of tax you collected is equal to $0. Additionally, if your property is listed on multiple sites, you may still have a tax filing obligation on reservations booked on other sites.You should check the reporting requirements for your specific jurisdiction(s) or consult your tax professional to avoid penalties for not reporting.
Information travellers see about taxes
Starting on the date collection and remittance begins, travellers will see a separate charge called ‘Stay Tax’ on their traveller quote, which will be added to the total amount they pay for their booking.If your traveller made a booking on our platform before the date we begin tax collection and remittance, but will check in after the date we begin tax collection and remittance, you remain responsible for collecting and remitting tax for that booking. We only collect taxes at the time of booking. If you have split payments, we collect all taxes at the time of booking, regardless of the payment schedule.
If your traveller asks you for a tax receipt, please direct them to the Service Fee invoice in the Payments detail area of their account. Taxes are also shown on the traveller’s quote and payment confirmation. After the date we start collecting and paying tax, stay tax amounts will be clearly displayed to the traveller.
If a traveller asks for a refund of the lodging tax, please contact our team or ask the traveller to reach out to us by clicking the Contact Us button below.