Extras on Excise: Good Guy Airbnb: Making Sure Illinois Gets Paid

Airbnb’s impact on the way people travel is not slowing down. Airbnb conducted a study of the economic, social and positive community impact Airbnb had in Chicago over the past year.  The study showed that from July 2014 to June of 2015, Chicago Airbnbs housed 4,550 visitors. The year prior, Chicago hosted 165,800 guests through the popular website. 

Airbnb started collecting hotel occupancy taxes for Chicago as of February. Continuing with the company’s Community Compact, Airbnb is working with the local communities that use Airbnb’s services in order to make sure hotel occupancy taxes and tourist taxes are being paid to the state. In an announcement, Airbnb publicized that it will start collecting the hotel and tourist taxes on behalf of Illinois beginning Jan. 15, 2016.

The current jurisdictions in the US where Airbnb is collecting taxes:

• DC
• Florida
• Illinois, as of Jan. 15, 2016
• Chicago, IL
• Malibu, CA
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• San Jose, CA
• Santa Clara, CA
• Santa Monica, CA
• Oakland, CA
• Palo Alto, CA
• Multnomah County, Oregon
• City of Portland, Oregon
• Philadelphia, PA
• Phoenix, AZ
• Rhode Island
• North Carolina
• Washington

As part of the positive community impact study, Airbnb found that guests who visited Chicago wanted to ‘live like a local’ and ended up spending a lot of money in local businesses around the area they were staying rather than big tourist attractions. The social impact survey found that 24 percent of Airbnb guests visiting Chicago came from abroad. With statistics for a city like Chicago looking so beneficial to the economy, it’s a wonder if the rest of the country will react by requesting Airbnb to collect taxes on their behalf as well. 

Continue the discussion on Bloomberg BNA’s State Tax Group on LinkedIn: What jurisdictions would benefit from regulations requiring Airbnb to collect hotel occupancy taxes? 

For more information about this and other state tax issues, sign up for a free trial of the Bloomberg BNA Premier State Tax Library.