Airbnb is making headlines for all the right reasons, the company has made another step in the area of government taxes help keep local authorities happy ahead of it eagerly anticipated IPO in 2019
In 2014 Airbnb started to collects hotel and tourist taxes from its hosts and remits them to the various governments it has agreements with. Since Airbnb started collecting taxes, it has collected and remitted over 1 billion dollars to the various governments. This process for collecting taxes has been streamlined which has made it easy for both the hosts and the government to pay and collect taxes respectively.
Airbnb feels that assisting authorities to collect taxes is a part of its corporate social responsibility. As such, it enters into voluntary agreements with over 400 governments worldwide. For example, since entering into a tax collection agreement with the City of Los Angeles in the year 2016, it has assisted the city to collect and remit more than $100 million.
That is not all. In Pennsylvania, the innovative firm has collected and remitted over $ 20 million in addition to more than $2 million it has collected and remitted in the various counties across New York. These activities are not limited to the US alone. Airbnb also engages in these activities across many regions in Europe where it has assisted thousands of cities in revenue collection.
These tax collection agreements have assisted many authorities to meet their revenue targets. Hosts now are in a position to pay their fair share of taxes and support the government in carrying out its mandate. It is a win-win situation for Airbnb, governments, and hosts.