One of the issues we have been working hard on here at Airbnb is the question of how we can best help our community understand — and in many cases help them pay — the kinds of taxes that might apply to renting out one’s own home. We have long provided income tax forms in the United States, for instance.
Over the last year, we have increasingly turned to helping hosts and guests pay tourism taxes as well. Sometimes called “hotel tax” or “transient occupancy tax,” it isn’t always clear which taxes apply and to whom in our community. But as we learn more, we want to help more.
Airbnb first began collecting tourist taxes from guests on behalf of our hosts in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California. So far, we’ve collected and sent more than $5 million to these governments. Since then we have worked to implement similar arrangements and will tomorrow begin collecting and remitting tourist taxes in Amsterdam and in San Jose, California. We are also continuing our productive discussions on a similar initiative in France.
This week, we wanted to share that on February 15, we will also begin collecting and remitting these taxes in Washington D.C. and Chicago, Illinois. If you’d like to learn more about how this process will work in those or other cities, please visit our Help Center.
We know that our community has already contributed substantial positive economic benefits in each of these communities, and this is just one more step in helping our hosts make their neighborhoods stronger.
This is a complicated challenge, but we want to continue working with officials around the globe to ensure that tax rules for home sharing are clear, fair, and easy to follow. We look forward to a continued dialogue on this issue with leaders around the world to ensure the sharing economy continues to thrive.