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"The attorney general is going to court to force popular vacation rental site Airbnb to turn over documents dating back to 2008 about who is renting out property and what money they've made."
"The state says it believes that many vacation rental owners are failing to report and pay general excise tax and transient accommodation taxes, and they're asking the court to order Airbnb to turn over the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and bank information for potentially thousands of owners."
Personally, I'd be shocked if more than 10% of Airbnb rentals are paying taxes.
"There will be penalties and interest applied if they have not been paying."
I hope they lose the lawsuit, though I'm not sure they will (I'd have to look into the law on the matter, which I have not done). It should fall on Airbnb to help Hawaii enforce its tax laws. Individual owners/renters using Airbnb have a responsibility to follow the law. If Hawaii believes that these folks are not paying taxes, then they should have concrete proof of individual cases (which should be prosecuted) instead of going on a fishing expedition, even if that fishing expedition is likely to reel in a lot of fish.
I believe it is reasonable to require Airbnb to provide the information so the state can confirm compliance. The state can not only confirm if a property is reporting and paying appropriate tax, but also if the property is legally zoned for vacation rental. Airbnb should have no justifiable reason for withholding this information.
Personally I believe Airbnb is complicit in proliferating and participating in illegal activity in the state of Hawaii because they allow and profit from illegal vacation rental properties on their site and they do not vett properties for compliance with state zoning laws before allowing them to operate on their site. It’s a problem in the state and Airbnb is currently part of the problem and profiting from illegal activity facilitated by their site.
I see your point on the vacation rentals issue, though I'm not sure how widespread this is. Indeed, and this is going on my experience with airbnb in NYC (which is not necessarily the ass here), I'd imagine that no laws are being broken if someone merely rents out a room in their house (as opposed to renting out the entire unit) via airbnb? Still, even in those cases where the law is being broken, I'd say that the onus should still be on the person putting up rentals on airbnb to follow local laws. If the state makes airbnb aware of particular illegal rentals and airbnb fails to take action, that's another story though. My opinion, though.
I'd imagine that no laws are being broken if someone merely rents out a room in their house (as opposed to renting out the entire unit) via airbnb?
On Oahu - except for some areas on Waikiki and literally a handful of grandfathered vacation rental permits in a couple of other areas - it is illegal to rent out a room (emphasis on rent) for a period of less than 30 days.
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What about VRBO? We used to rent our house through them and they never asked if we were licensed or legal (which we were). We knew that we had to register with the County and pay GET and Transient Accommodations tax. But not because VRBO told us to.
On Oahu - except for some areas on Waikiki and literally a handful of grandfathered vacation rental permits in a couple of other areas - it is illegal to rent out a room (emphasis on rent) for a period of less than 30 days.
That does change things up a bit. I just read somewhere that Caldwell was trying to amend the law to allow for thousands of short term rentals in resort, business or apartment areas: https://www.khon2.com/news/local-new...ods/1327235513
I don't know what came (or is coming) of the proposal, though.
I hope this plan passes as the current situation is no bueno in my view.
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