Breckenridge and Airbnb Reach New Tax Agreement

Airbnb will now voluntarily collect and remit taxes

ColoradoBiz Staff //October 1, 2019//

Breckenridge and Airbnb Reach New Tax Agreement

Airbnb will now voluntarily collect and remit taxes

ColoradoBiz Staff //October 1, 2019//

Airbnb recently reached a new tax agreement with the Town of Breckenridge. As of Oct. 1, Airbnb will collect and remit the town’s 3.4% public accommodation tax and the 2.5% sales tax on behalf of its hosts and guests on all short-term stays of less than 29 days. Guests will be charged the taxes on their Airbnb reservation and the company will remit the taxes collected to the Town of Breckenridge. Guests will see this as a separate line item on their booking receipt. 

“Airbnb helps Breckenridge families earn extra income while allowing visitors to stay in local neighborhoods to experience this beautiful mountain community,” says Laura Spanjian, Airbnb senior policy director of Colorado. “Breckenridge is a long-time vacation rental market and we are excited to work with the town to make the tax collection process easier for all parties and to promote healthy tourism to the area.”

While Breckenridge has been a popular vacation rental market for decades, residents are increasingly embracing home sharing to help make ends meet, stay in their homes and save for retirement. In 2018, local hosts welcomed over 89,000 Airbnb guest arrivals to the community. 

“Tourism revenue plays an important part in the town’s budget, and this agreement will ensure that the appropriate taxes are collected in a timely and efficient fashion," says Leslie Fischer, Town of Breckenridge’s accounting services manager.

Airbnb already collects and remits taxes to other jurisdictions in the state, including Colorado’s sales tax (2.9%), the Summit County sales tax (2.75%) and the Summit Combined Housing Authority’s MHA tax (0.725%) to the State of Colorado.

Airbnb has created similar partnerships with governments across the world to collect and remit taxes, making the process seamless and easy for hosts while contributing valuable revenue to communities. Airbnb has collected and remitted more than $1.25 billion in hotel and tourist taxes worldwide from 500 world governments since 2014. 

About Airbnb

Founderd in 2008, Airbnb is an online marketplace for arranging or offering lodging, primarily homestays or tourism experiences. Its online marketplace has places to stay in nearly 100,000 cities and 191 countries as well as access to over 40,000 activities run by hosts across over 1,000 markets in the world.