Airbnb Taxes

This article explains how taxes work specifically for Airbnb. Airbnb can be more complex for tax settings than other channels, because the possible scenarios are more complex than with other channels.

There are two concepts that are important when thinking about taxes: who collects the taxes from the guest, and who remits the taxes to the taxing authorities. Most channels will let you configure all of the taxes applicable in your area. Then, the channel will collect all of the taxes, include them in your payout, and you will remit all of the taxes.

That scenario can happen with Airbnb. But there are also more complex scenarios where Airbnb collects and remits some of the taxes and you collect and remit other taxes, or maybe they don't support collection in your area at all and you have to roll the taxes into your rates and remit them all yourself.

Wondering if Airbnb remits taxes for your area? See Airbnb's Areas where tax collection and remittance by Airbnb is available Help Center Article.

First, read through the possible scenarios and decide which one applies to you. Then, follow the directions in the Configuration section to configure them.

We recommend remitting the taxes yourself if you can because that makes Airbnb act like other channels and simplifies how you have to report the taxes.

• Tax Displays
• Possible Scenarios
  • Ineligible
  • None
  • Override
  • Stacked
• Configuration
• Tax Rate Changes
• Testing and Verification
• Reporting

Tax Displays

Airbnb does not display taxes to potential guests on the Airbnb platform early in the booking process. Taxes are only displayed to potential Airbnb guests after they click on the Reserve button - basically, the last screen during the payment process.  That's where the taxes finally show up.

Possible Scenarios

The first question is, does Airbnb by default collect all of the taxes in your area? In some areas, Airbnb will collect and remit all taxes, which makes things fairly straightforward. We still recommend remitting the taxes yourself if you can, but as long as Airbnb is already collecting them all, you could just let them remit them as well.

If Airbnb collects some but not all taxes in your area, then you have to figure out how to collect the remaining taxes. If they support custom taxes in your area, we highly recommend using that method to collect the additional taxes that they don't. If not, OwnerRez can be configured to include the taxes in the rates pushed to Airbnb and then back them out to display them correctly in OwnerRez, but that's a lot more complex. We don't recommend or support that method if you can use custom taxes.

There are four possible modes for custom/passthrough taxes on Airbnb. You can see the mode for a property on the Airbnb Taxes dashboard in OwnerRez as described in the Testing and Verification section below.

NOTE: Airbnb chooses the mode for every listing based on the property location, and neither you nor OwnerRez have control over the tax mode. If you believe Airbnb has selected the mode for your listing in error, contact Airbnb support.

Here's what these modes mean:

Ineligible

When a listing is ineligible for custom taxes, you can't set custom taxes for it. Airbnb may or may not collect and remit certain taxes for this listing.

First, check whether they collect and remit all the taxes you need for the listing. See Airbnb's Help Center article, Areas where tax collection and remittance by Airbnb is available. If they do, you're good to go—just let them collect and remit all the taxes.

Then go to Settings > Taxes and make sure the correct taxes are configured and applicable to Airbnb. In this mode, OwnerRez will add the taxes to the rates it pushes. Then, when importing a booking, it will remove the taxes from the rate and create separate charge line items for them in OwnerRez.

None

Airbnb doesn't collect taxes; hosts can add custom taxes. If there are no taxes in your area, there's nothing to do here.

If there are taxes in your area, configure them, and Airbnb will collect them and pass them through to you for remittance.

Override

Airbnb automatically collects certain taxes and remits them. Hosts who would like to assume responsibility for remitting all taxes can opt out of Airbnb's automatic tax collection and remittance by adding their own custom taxes.

Stacked

Airbnb will collect and remit certain taxes directly to tax authorities, and will also collect any additional taxes set by the host and remit them directly to the host.

NOTE: Airbnb does not check taxes for duplication. If they're collecting a tax and you accidentally configure the same tax as a passthrough tax in OwnerRez, Airbnb will collect and remit the tax and then also collect and pass through the tax to you based on that setting.

Configuration

Now that you've seen the scenarios, you can choose how to configure them. General applicability is controlled by the Channels setting on the tax. If you set applicability to "everything but Airbnb" or don't have passthrough tax fields set, then that tax will not apply to Airbnb.  Airbnb will continue to collect and remit taxes for your listings if that's what you had set in Airbnb before becoming channel integrated.  This is the default behavior and it will continue to work after you become channel integrated.

However, Airbnb lets you turn this off and pay "pass-through" taxes.  This means that Airbnb will collect the tax from the guest and then pass it through to you to remit to the tax authority. This makes it your responsibility to actually remit the collected tax to each appropriate taxing authority.

Airbnb only allows this in some areas, though, so first check to see if it's allowed. You can see this in the Airbnb Mode column on the Airbnb Taxes dashboard in OwnerRez as described in the Testing and Verification section below.

If pass-through taxes are allowed, return to OwnerRez and configure them using the instructions below.

To create a tax in OwnerRez that will go to Airbnb as a custom tax:

1. Go to Settings > Taxes
2. If you've already created the tax, edit it. Otherwise, create the new tax.
3. If it is a pre-existing tax, make sure the Channels setting matches Airbnb as of today.
4. Populate the Type, Business Tax ID, Registration Number, and Attestation fields. All of these are required for a tax to pass through to Airbnb.

Tax Rate Changes

Changes to Airbnb tax rates will apply only to new bookings as they come in.  They do not retroactively apply to any bookings that already exist, even if their dates of applicability would otherwise require it. 

• Airbnb does not support future tax rate changes. This means that bookings placed prior to the date of the tax change will continue to be charged the current (old) tax rate until the date of the tax rate change--even if the arrival occurs in the future changed tax rate.
• The only way to collect additional taxes is by using Airbnb's Resolution Center.

Testing and Verification

Once you've configured the taxes, it's important to test them to make sure they're configured as you intended.

The first step is to go to the Taxes tab in the Airbnb channel in OwnerRez. This dashboard will show all of your connected properties and taxes, along with the mode they are in.

The Airbnb Mode column indicates whether you can set custom taxes on Airbnb or whether the listing is ineligible for them. Then, each tax has its own column that shows whether it's configured to be passed through to you, included in the rate, or not applicable to that listing.

If everything looks good on the tax configuration, then visit your Airbnb listing as a guest and get a quote. Make sure that it looks good as well -- all the taxes that should be included are included, and there are no extra or duplicate taxes.

Reporting

For taxes that are completely handled by Airbnb, meaning that you, the host, never see or touch taxes collected by Airbnb and Airbnb remits your collected taxes directly to your local tax authorities, tax information appears in either the individual Booking > Charges tab > Guest Channel Fees or OwnerRez Tax Reports.

However, some jurisdictions will still expect property owners to file a report of the taxes that Airbnb submitted on their behalf. OwnerRez does not have a very good way of reporting this, but tax information does appear on the Listing Site Fees Report.