Newark, New Jersey's Largest City, Hopes to Legalize Airbnb Today
Skift Take
To say that Newark comes to this fight as the weaker party is an understatement. If the city wants to do more than just collect taxes and begin regulating short-term rentals, however, it might want to take a good look at a recent San Francisco city report that shows just how complicated that endeavor can be.
Newark, New Jersey, is set to become the second city in that state to legalize Airbnb and use the platform to collect and remit taxes.
On Tuesday, April 12, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is expected to announce that Airbnb and his administration have signed a tax agreement whereby Airbnb will collect a 6 percent tax from hosts that's equal to the lodging tax paid by hotels.
Newark joins Jersey City as the only two cities in the Tri-State area that will have legalized Airbnb. Just across the Hudson River, in New York City, however, restrictions regarding Airbnb are tightly managed, and the city has not made any effort to sign a tax agreement with Airbnb.
Jersey City announced it was signing a tax agreement with Airbnb back in October, and the city collected its first tax payments from
