HomeAway now collects lodging taxes for short-term rental hosts in Washington and Oregon
- Jul 9, 2018 | Jennifer Sokolowsky
The online short-term rental platform HomeAway began collecting lodging taxes on behalf of its HomeAway, VRBO, and VacationRentals.com hosts in Washington state and Oregon on July 1.
In Washington, HomeAway will collect the state’s combined sales tax and other transient lodging taxes, including the special hotel/motel tax, convention and trade center tax, regional transit authority tax, and tourism promotion area charges. These taxes will be automatically added to guests’ bills, collected, and remitted to the state by HomeAway.
Previously, short-term rental operators booking through HomeAway were responsible for collecting and remitting their own lodging taxes. Airbnb, however, has collected lodging taxes on behalf of its hosts in Washington since 2015.
Even though HomeAway will be collecting lodging taxes, Washington hosts are still required to register with the state Department of Revenue and file lodging tax returns reporting their rental income. Short-term rental operators may also be required to pay business taxes.
The Oregon Legislature passed a law earlier this year that requires all short-term rental listing platforms to collect lodging taxes on all bookings. HomeAway will be collecting state, city, and county transient lodging taxes (except in Clackamas County). Hosts may still be required to register and file lodging tax returns with the state, county, or city even if HomeAway is collecting lodging taxes on their behalf.
In Oregon, Airbnb already automatically collects state lodging taxes and some city and county taxes, but hosts are responsible for collecting taxes in cities and counties where Airbnb does not collect.
The new collection requirements could net the state an extra $400,000 annually in lodging taxes and another $2 million for local governments, according to an analysis by the Legislative Revenue Office.
In both Washington and Oregon, HomeAway hosts will be responsible for collecting taxes on all bookings that were made before HomeAway started collecting taxes on July 1, as well as any bookings made through other platforms or directly by guests. MyLodgeTax can help short-term rental hosts figure out their lodging tax obligations and take care of any lodging taxes that are not collected for them.
In the United States, HomeAway also collects taxes for hosts in Idaho; Washington, D.C.; Broward County, Florida; and Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California.
