Drew Wilson
Vacation rental platform Airbnb announced Friday that it has collected and remitted more than $12 million in tax revenue to Miami-Dade and Broward counties over the past year.
Those collections are from separate agreements agreed to by each county’s commission that saw Airbnb start automatically collecting 6 percent bed taxes and remitting the revenue directly to county coffers.
Those deals, which went into effect in May 2017, weren’t expected to be nearly as lucrative when the counties approved them — county officials estimated the Airbnb tax partnerships could bring $6 million to Miami-Dade and $1 million to Broward annually.
The split ended up being $8.4 million to Miami-Dade and $3.7 million to Broward.
Airbnb has since entered into dozens of similar agreements with counties across the state. Airbnb also has a partnership with the Florida Department of Revenue to collect and remit state sales taxes on all taxable bookings throughout the Sunshine State.
The benefits of the vacation rental platform aren’t just for governments. Airbnb announced in April that Florida seniors were able to add $150 million in supplemental via the platform in 2017.
Traditional hotels are doing just fine as well, the company says, pointing to Visit Florida data and asserting that its business model complements, rather than competes with, the hotel industry.
“This all suggests that vacation rentals on Airbnb and other platforms are opening up the state to a new demographic of tourists by catering to travelers who are less able to afford hotels, those who desire to stay in neighborhoods or cities that lack hotels, and families who prefer to vacation together under one roof,” the Airbnb release said.
