Tulsa to begin charging 5 percent lodging tax March 1

As of March 1, Airbnb will collect a 5 percent city lodging tax on all its short-term rentals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Airbnb will automatically charge the tax when guests pay for bookings and remit the tax to the city on behalf of hosts.

Airbnb has a similar deal with the state of Oklahoma. That means that on Tulsa bookings, Airbnb collects Oklahoma state sales tax, plus state-administered city and county sales tax (a total of 8.517 percent), in addition to the 5 percent Tulsa lodging tax. Airbnb also has a separate agreement with Oklahoma City.

Tulsa officials say they’re working on similar tax collection agreements with other short-term platforms. Until those agreements are in place, however, short-term rental hosts who use rental platforms other than Airbnb, such as VRBO and HomeAway, are responsible for collecting taxes on rentals themselves.

Hosts in Tulsa and throughout Oklahoma can get help with this by using MyLodgeTax, a managed tax filing service.

Airbnb operators hosted 16,000 guests in Tulsa last year. Each host in Tulsa makes an average of $5,200 per year on Airbnb rentals.

Meanwhile, Tulsa officials have been working for about a year to come up with regulations that would legalize short-term vacation rentals and require all short-term rental services pay the 5 percent lodging tax.

Currently, Tulsa’s zoning code does not specifically address short-term rentals. They’re treated as bed-and-breakfasts and must get a special exception to the zoning code to operate.