Airbnb Wants Its Customers To Be Taxed

Calm down Airbnb fans, contrary to what the headline implies, in this case being taxed is a good thing.

The housing rental website wants to collect taxes from its customers so that they aren’t dinged with thousands of dollars in fines for unpaid sales and occupancy taxes at a later time.

It’s an ongoing battle between the governments of global cities and Airbnb. And it’s not just city governments going after Airbnb property owners for unpaid taxes, but also state/provincial governments that lose out on tax revenue traditionally collected from the hotel industry.

Related: Beware Airbnb guest, neighbors can now snitch on you

A Canadian man who started renting his Montreal home on Airbnb four years ago was shocked to learn he owes the province of Quebec $62,000 in unpaid goods and services taxes, sales taxes and hotel taxes. In December, the province passed a bill that requires Airbnb hosts to get the correct paper work which allows them to collect a lodging tax from renters. The onus falls on Airbnb hosts to independently collect taxes from renters, rather than having taxes built into the Airbnb fee.

Montreal is just one city impacted by this Airbnb tax issue. New York City, the king of Airbnb, has had ongoing tax battles with the housing website for a couple years. In 2014, Airbnb was slapped with a lawsuit for refusing to release the names of its New York customers, who were presumably going to be fined for unpaid taxes.

Related: One King West hotel uses feedback survey to win online reviews

Now Airbnb is trying to take the tax burden off its customers. The company wants to team up with cities in the United States to create a tax solution where they collect taxes from their Airbnb users. They have launched a formal plea to U.S. city mayors in which they argue that a total of $2 billion in tax revenue can be gained over 10 years for the fifty largest U.S. cities. To date, a handful of American cities are already working with Airbnb to collect taxes.

What’s interesting about this tax saga is that Airbnb is proving, once again, to be focused on offering the best possible customer experience. It’s a serious inconvenience for Airbnb hosts to be responsible for the paperwork in collecting taxes, and Airbnb is trying to avoid this scenario, not to mention the pain of having to pay back taxes.

Congrats Airbnb for understanding that your loyalty lies with your customers.