New York City suspends occupancy tax through August

New York City vacation rental hosts are not required to collect the city’s hotel room occupancy tax from June through August.

Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order that suspended the tax from June 1 through August 31 in a move to encourage more tourists to visit the city. New York City hotel room occupancy tax revenues are down nearly 90% compared to last year.

Short-term rental operators in New York City must continue to collect and pay state sales tax, New York City sales tax, and a Hotel Unit Fee of $1.50 per day throughout the summer. These taxes and fees are administered by the state, not the city.

Outside of the moratorium, vacation rental operators must collect and pay the city occupancy tax unless the host:

• Only rents one room of their dwelling to guests
  
• Rents a whole home to guests only up to 14 days in a year
• Rents a whole home to guests only once or twice in a year

According to the New York State multiple dwelling law, short-term rentals are only allowed in most apartment buildings if the permanent tenant lives in the apartment while guests are staying there.

Currently, vacation rental platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo have agreements with some individual counties in New York State to collect lodging taxes for their hosts. However, neither Airbnb nor Vrbo currently collect taxes on behalf of their hosts in New York City.

When hosts do not have lodging taxes collected on their behalf, they are responsible for tax compliance — including registration, collection, and filing — with the city and state.

MyLodgeTax can help New York vacation rental hosts automate and simplify lodging tax obligations. For more on short-term rental taxes in New York State, see our Vacation Rental Tax Guide. If you have tax questions related to vacation rental properties, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you with answers.