Sacramento is a town that loves taxes—the higher the better, the more the merrier. If it could you would turn over your paycheck to the city and they would give you an allowance. This is a city that is using hundreds of millions in taxes, credits and exemptions to allow billionaire to have a basketball arena in the middle of downtown. They build bike lanes next to the potholes. And, if visitors want to use a private home to rest while in the city—tax the hell out of them.
“Nearly a year ago, the Sacramento City Council approved an ordinance requiring Airbnb Inc. and other online, short-term rental platforms to collect and pay the same taxes paid by hotels on behalf of their guests. But when city officials initiated a process to collect those transient occupancy taxes, Airbnb balked, citing concerns that the city’s process compromised the privacy of its hosts.
Officials are now looking at several options to force Airbnb hosts to pay taxes, with the issue possibly going to the City Council in the coming weeks.
“The fix is relatively simple. We just have to show Airbnb that we are serious about collecting,” said City Councilman Jeff Harris.
Yes, you see the Democrats that run Sacramento do not believe in the right to privacy—except when it comes to abortion—the arrogance of Councilman Harris to threaten private home owners shows the lengths they will go for another nickel to government—so unions and special interests can prosper. I love Airbnb, because it is straight from “Atlas Shrugs”—it believes in a free man, not a government slave.
City plans crackdown on Airbnb over taxes
Allen Young , Sacramento Business Journal, 1/5/17
The city of Sacramento is considering options to force Airbnb hosts to pay taxes, following a dispute between the city and the vacation rental giant that has persisted since early 2016.
Nearly a year ago, the Sacramento City Council approved an ordinance requiring Airbnb Inc. and other online, short-term rental platforms to collect and pay the same taxes paid by hotels on behalf of their guests. But when city officials initiated a process to collect those transient occupancy taxes, Airbnb balked, citing concerns that the city’s process compromised the privacy of its hosts.
Officials are now looking at several options to force Airbnb hosts to pay taxes, with the issue possibly going to the City Council in the coming weeks.
“The fix is relatively simple. We just have to show Airbnb that we are serious about collecting,” said City Councilman Jeff Harris.
Harris said he favors an idea to require each Airbnb hosts to publish a city-granted permit number on their Airbnb online advertisement for their rental unit. That would allow the city to track which residents are using Airbnb to offer their homes as short-term rentals, and whether those hosts are paying taxes.
Airbnb has wrangled with cities across the nation on tax collection. The company wrote in a December blog post that it had remitted $110 million in taxes to more than 200 jurisdictions around the world.
In San Francisco, the city and company have agreed on a process where Airbnb collects and remits the taxes and provides information on hosts and guests to the tax collector, according to a report in The San Francisco Chronicle.
A December report by the city of Sacramento showed the city had received just 22 short-term rental applications from hosts, and approved 13. But city officials estimate that over 400 residents are renting out their homes on Airbnb in Sacramento, and the city is missing out on up to $200,000 in annual unpaid taxes.
A call to Airbnb was not immediately returned on Wednesday. The company previously told the Business Journal it intended to pay all owed taxes after ensuring the privacy of its hosts from data breaches and burglary.
So far, the company has refused to provide the city with the names and addresses of its hosts, and has not collected transient occupancy taxes from hosts or remitted them to the city, as city officials say the ordinance requires it to do.
City officials argue that obtaining host contact information is necessary, both to collect taxes and to address complaints from neighbors of Airbnb hosts.
Officials say collection of the transient occupancy taxes is critical because it provides public funding for city services used by tourists as well as residents, like road repair and trash collection.
“We need Airbnb to cooperate so the city can adequately provide services to everyone while they are here,” said Randi Knott, the city’s director of government affairs.
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