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Washington County committee weighs whether to share short-term rental booking data as platforms remit occupancy taxes
Summary
County staff said a newly launched short-term rental registry enables platforms to remit occupancy tax, but platforms are sending checks without passenger/stay data; members debated confidentiality, assessor access, and an estimated $5,000 vendor module that could deliver platform data.
County staff told the Washington County Economic Development Committee that the county has launched a short-term rental (STR) registry using software from DeCard and is charging a $250 registration fee every two years to cover software and administration costs. The registry assigns registration numbers that online booking platforms are meant to require before accepting reservations, enabling the platforms to collect sales and occupancy taxes.
"We purchased software from DeCard to create a registry of the short-term rental properties," the staff member said, adding that the registry had helped the county begin collecting occupancy tax. The staff member also said the county believes roughly 400 properties are operating as STRs across the county and that just over 100 have registered so far.
Staff described a split in how online platforms are complying…
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