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Tax collector, TDC detail new lodging-data collection; occupancy and compliance improving
Summary
Tax collector staff presented new, month-specific lodging data to the TDC, including a countywide October occupancy figure, explanations of how vacation-rental categories are counted, ongoing audits and enforcement steps to improve bed-tax compliance and reporting.
Tax-collector staff and TDC officials on Jan. 16 presented newly compiled lodging data that the council said will help target marketing and auditing more precisely.
Renee Flint of the Tax Collector’s Office described the report’s categories — single-family, duplex/compound, townhome/condo, B&B, RV/campground and hotel chain versus non-chain hotels — and explained how the office is classifying vacation rentals. “The single families are across the board, whether they’re Airbnb, VRBO, however somebody put in their application to us,” Flint said. She added the numbers reported on the new sheet reflect actual collections for the month cited — for example, the October column contains revenue remitted in October for activity the tax collector processed in that month.
TDC staff noted the countywide occupancy figure for October was roughly 30 percent; staff cautioned that the county’s large inventory of vacation-rental accounts (staff said the pool of potential room nights from vacation rentals exceeds 20,000) and required monthly filings of accounts even when no sales occur can skew occupancy percentages downward. Staff explained the “potential” column multiplies an account’s stated inventory by the number of days in the reporting month (accounts × inventory × days) and that a single five-bedroom unit counts as one account, not as multiple rooms when rented for multiple nights.
Flint described enforcement steps used to increase compliance: targeted notices, postcards to condo owners, routine internet searches to match property-appraiser records to short-term rental listings, and ongoing audits. She said the office has initiated several audits with an outside certified public accountant and is performing in-house desk audits when filings or remittances appear irregular.
Council staff said the new month-based data will allow the TDC to identify seasonal patterns (for example, campgrounds with lower occupancy in the second quarter) and adjust targeted media buys earlier in the promotional cycle. Staff and the tax collector said the reporting is a work in progress and that some reconciliations — for example, differences with Smith Travel Research (STR) hotel inventory reports and timing of deposits — remain under review.
