Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Short Term Rentals topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Alpine forum highlights short-term rental reporting gaps; staff says platforms don't currently remit local tax
Summary
Residents and officials at an Alpine forum heard that short-term rentals accounted for about 10.36% of local hotel-tax collections last year, that Alpine currently lacks a voluntary collection agreement with Airbnb or Vrbo for the local 7% tax, and that operators remain responsible for adding and remitting the local tax.
At a public session on hotel-occupancy tax, city staff and industry counsel told residents that short-term rentals (STRs) are legally subject to Alpine's 7% municipal hotel-occupancy tax but that collection and remittance present practical challenges.
Mr. Vee of the Alpine Visitor Center raised concerns about the city's STR reporting form using the word "profit" rather than "revenue"; officials agreed the form language should be corrected and that taxable revenue, not profit, is the relevant figure for calculating tax liability.
City staff reported that last year 53 short-term rentals remitted about 10.36% of the city's hotel-tax collections while the larger hotels contributed the majority of receipts. Staff shared sample figures: average hotel remittance for the year was roughly $58,000; average STR remittance about $1,000; the largest STR remittance reported was about $7,000 and the next highest about $3,000.
Platform collection agreements: Justin Bragle said some Texas jurisdictions have voluntary collection agreements (VCAs) with platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo for local taxes, but Alpine is not listed on those platforms' public agreement pages and therefore does not currently benefit from automated local collection. Bragle said the platforms commonly maintain an agreement to collect the state's 6% tax for remittance to the Texas Comptroller, but Alpine's local 7% requires a separate VCA or operator-level reporting and remittance.
Operator obligations: Bragle told STR operators that taxable revenue is typically the base room rate plus cleaning fees (minus any statutory exemptions), and that platforms' service fees are generally the operator's cost and not subject to hotel tax. He advised operators to add the local 7% to customer-facing charges and remit it to the city because failure to include the local tax effectively reduces operator revenue.
Enforcement: Officials acknowledged enforcement is resource-intensive. Some cities contract third-party collection and enforcement vendors; smaller municipalities sometimes accept lower compliance rates due to staffing limits. Staff offered to help individual operators check listings and resolve questions about whether their platform is collecting and remitting local taxes.
Status and next steps: The platform-remittance issue remains unresolved for Alpine: staff will investigate whether any local collections are occurring via the platforms and will pursue voluntary agreements or other remedies if feasible.
