Airbnb Agrees to Collect Taxes From its Hosts in Los Angeles
Skift Take
Does this tax-collection agreement mean Airbnb is completely legal in Los Angeles? Not really. But if you're renting out your home as a short-term rental, the city wants to make sure it gets its cut of the business, even as it's revising its short-term rental laws.
As it has in cities that include San Francisco; Portland, Oregon, and Newark, New Jersey, Airbnb has signed an agreement with city officials in Los Angeles to collect and remit lodging taxes on behalf of its hosts.
The tax collection, at a rate of 14 percent, is set to begin in August. The agreement also allows the city to audit the tax payments and to go after hosts for previous tax liabilities.
According to estimates from Airbnb, if Los Angeles had struck this type of tax agreement with Airbnb in 2015, then Airbnb would have already remitted $23 million in lodging taxes to the city. Los Angeles is Airbnb's second largest market in the U.S. according to data from CBRE Hotels, which provides in
