A new 50-state analysis of Airbnb vacation rental bookings found governments are potentially leaving $440 million on the table this year in forgone tax revenue from Airbnb rentals. One-quarter of that total comes from New York alone, according to the report conducted by the accommodations search engine AllTheRooms.com.
About half of the country doesn’t collect any taxes from Airbnb rentals, while 26 states have statewide or city specific deals to collect some portion of the hospitality tax from the company.
The Takeaway: This total is more of an estimate than a hard figure. The website got to the $440 million total largely through projecting Airbnb’s business this year based on historic totals. Still, the figure highlights an ongoing issue for localities: They’re constantly playing a game of catch-up when it comes to recapturing a tax base that is gravitating more and more to the sharing economy.
GOVERNING.COM
BY LIZ FARMER | OCTOBER 28, 2016