Warren County treasurer: New York shifting short-term rental tax reporting to counties; county building registry

Warren County Treasurer Christine reported Tuesday that a pending New York State chapter amendment would shift responsibility for short-term rental registration and much of occupancy-tax remittance from the state to counties, and require booking platforms to provide more detailed reporting to local authorities.

The change matters for Warren County because it will broaden the data available to county tax and tourism officials and change who remits occupancy tax. "The platforms are going to collect the occupancy tax and remit it directly to the counties," Christine said. "We're actually automating our processes now." She added the new definitions in the state amendment will eliminate several longstanding exceptions, including the so-called bungalow exception and the "three-or-less cabins" carve-out that previously limited collections.

Why it matters: County staff said the amendment will increase visibility into short-term rental activity and should raise both occupancy-tax and sales-tax receipts, but it will also obligate counties to accept and reconcile platform-supplied reports in whatever formats the platforms provide. Christine said New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) told her the state will not mandate a single reporting format and left that choice to counties and platforms. "They said, no. We're going to leave that up to the counties and the platforms, which can be — that's going to be very difficult," she said.

County planning and treasury implications: Christine told the committee Warren County plans to expand its registry and enforcement work in 2025, including outreach to long-running, under-the-radar hosts. "2025 is going to be the year that the treasurer's office is going to work with the county and work with our residents to say, let's just get compliant," she said, adding that the county is discussing an amnesty-like approach for prior noncompliance but warned of retrospective enforcement if nonfilers are identified later.

Data and technology: The county is already using Granicus to find rental listings and reported roughly 125 new registrants that will provide annual returns; Christine said Granicus' role may decline if platforms begin to supply the mandated details directly. The treasurer also reported total occupancy-tax collections through Dec. 31, 2024 were up about 5 percent year over year, with roughly 2 percentage points of that increase attributable to enforcement efforts; she said further adjustments will be visible after books close at the end of March.

Committee reaction and next steps: Supervisors pressed for a standardized reporting format to avoid reconciling many disparate platform reports; Christine said she is working with NYSAC to develop a standard and has offered county staff help. She said county staff will continue to monitor the chapter amendment while automating the local registry and coordinating outreach and compliance work with towns and villages.

Ending: County staff said they will return with more details once the state amendment is finalized and when automated reporting from either platforms or Granicus is available to the county.