Airbnb to collect state lodging tax in Missouri
- Jan 31, 2018 | MyLodgeTax
Vacation-rental listing platform Airbnb will start collecting lodging taxes on behalf of all its Missouri hosts beginning Feb. 1.
Missouri is the latest government to make a tax collection deal with Airbnb, which has similar agreements with approximately 350 tax jurisdictions in the United States.
According to Airbnb, its approximately 6,300 Missouri hosts earned nearly $30 million in rental revenues in 2017, with guest numbers growing by 289,000. If bookings in 2018 remain similar to last year’s number, Airbnb estimates that Missouri will receive $1.1 million in tax revenue.
For Missouri Airbnb hosts, the deal means Airbnb will automatically collect Missouri’s 4.2 percent accommodations sales tax and pass it on to the state for them. Airbnb will also collect local taxes for some counties and cities, including city sales taxes ranging from 0.25 to 1.375 percent, county sales taxes ranging from 0.25 to 0.5 percent, additional county sales taxes ranging from 0.12 to 0.5 percent, a tourism water quality tax of 0.25 percent, separate tourism taxes that range from 0.5 to 5 percent, and local sales taxes of 1 percent.
Although Airbnb is working on agreements with more Missouri municipalities, hosts should be aware that Airbnb does not have agreements with all local tax jurisdictions in Missouri. In those cases, Airbnb collects the state tax, but hosts are responsible for collecting and remitting any local taxes that are due.
St. Louis and St. Louis County are among communities considering taxing short-term rentals in their jurisdictions and would need to make separate tax deals with vacation-rental platforms.
Hosts also need to keep in mind that if they use other booking platforms that don’t have a tax-collection agreement in place, such as VRBO or HomeAway, they’re responsible for collecting and remitting all taxes themselves. Automated lodging tax filing solutions can help hosts make sure they collect the correct taxes and pay them to the right tax authorities on time.
Although the Missouri agreement makes state sales tax fairly straightforward for Airbnb hosts, short-term rentals remain controversial on the local level in some areas over issues ranging from neighborhood disturbances to the ways in which short-term rentals and hotels are treated differently.
In November, for example, Frontenac banned rentals shorter than 31 days. Chesterfield, Hazelwood, and Maplewood have also moved to restrict short-term rentals.
In order to avoid potential fines and interest on top of any back taxes owed, short-term rental host need to ensure they’re properly licensed or permitted to operate legally, and in compliance with all local lodging tax requirements.
