HomeAway Incorporates Avalara’s Tax Center as Resource to Assist Vacation Rental Owners with Tax Law Compliance

April 22, 2015 - AUSTIN, Texas - HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWAY), the world leader in vacation rentals, today announces the launch of the HotSpot Tax Center in partnership with HotSpot Tax (soon to be renamed Avalara MyLodgeTax), the only automated, web-based tax filing solution for state and local short-term rental taxes. The HotSpot Tax Center is a free online resource for vacation rental owners to understand and comply with the complex tax and licensing requirements for their property and employ the services of HotSpot to easily manage their tax filings.

“More than 14 states and many, many cities in the U.S. are actively investigating vacation rental regulations related to tax issues, leaving vacation rental owners confused about how to comply with the tax regulations specific to their property,” says Carl Shepherd, HomeAway® co-founder and chief strategy and development officer. “This is a critical time in the growth of the industry and the services of HotSpot align perfectly with HomeAway’s requirement for all vacation rental owners to be aware of and comply with their legal responsibilities.”

Vacation rental owners visiting the HotSpot Tax Center learn about all tax-related topics including income taxes, lodging taxes, licensing and zoning requirements. In addition, a Tax Rate Lookup tool is provided to enable users to simply enter their property’s address to determine:

• Taxes owed (tax rate) from each rental transaction
• Number of tax returns to file annually
• Minimum number of nights a property must book to be deemed taxable
• Information about the number of registration/licenses required

HomeAway vacation rental owners utilizing HomeAway’s online booking tools already have the ability to enter the appropriate tax rate to be automatically added to each rental transaction and to access each previous invoice, ensuring accurate collection of taxes. The HotSpot Tax Center creates the bridge between the collection and filing of appropriate taxes to effortlessly increase compliance.

“Most owners want to be compliant with taxes, but may not understand how their property is taxed, and may often think they must only file federal income taxes on their rentals. It can be incredibly confusing for owners to figure out what the taxes and regulations are in their particular location,” says Rob Stephens, HotSpot co-founder and CEO. “HotSpot Tax solves these complicated tax and licensing requirements for only $12 a month, on average.”

In February 2015, HotSpot Tax became part of the product lineup for Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based software delivering compliance solutions related to sales tax, VAT and other transactional taxes. HotSpot maintains an extensive database of tax rates throughout thousands of locations across 43 states. To date, HotSpot has filed 350,000 sales & occupancy tax returns and paid $80 million in taxes to state and local agencies.

The HotSpot Tax Center can be found at www.hotspottax.com/taxcenter.

About HomeAway
HomeAway, Inc. based in Austin, Texas, is the world's leading online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, with sites representing over one million paid listings of vacation rental homes in 190 countries. Through HomeAway, owners and property managers offer an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with memorable experiences and benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy, for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations. The company also makes it easy for vacation rental owners and property managers to advertise their properties and manage bookings online. The HomeAway portfolio includes the leading vacation rental websites HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com in the United States; HomeAway.co.uk and OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; HomeAway.de in Germany; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; HomeAway.es and Toprural.es in Spain; AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil; HomeAway.com.au and Stayz.com.au in Australia; and Bookabach.co.nz in New Zealand. Asia Pacific short-term rental site, travelmob.com, is also owned by HomeAway.

HomeAway also operates BedandBreakfast.com, the most comprehensive global site for finding bed-and-breakfast properties, providing travelers with another source for unique lodging alternatives to chain hotels.

About HotSpot (soon to renamed Avalara MyLodgeTax)
HotSpot Tax is the leading provider of tax compliance solutions for the vacation rental industry. Its software platform enables anyone renting a home or room to be fully tax compliant each month with just a few clicks. HotSpot currently serves thousands of properties across the U.S., managing all aspects of occupancy-related tax requirements, including obtaining and renewing required licenses, determining and collecting the appropriate taxes, preparing and filing tax returns, remitting payments, and tracking tax rate and law changes.

For more information, visit www.hotspottax.com.

About Avalara
Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales tax, excise tax, and other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use.  Avalara’s end-to-end suite of solutions is designed to effectively manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.