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reprinted from:
Super Bowl home rent to be taxed
By Jo-Ann Johnston, Tampa
Tribune TAMPA - Hillsborough and Pinellas tax collectors want their cut if private homes are rented out to Super Bowl visitors. Tax collectors in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties want homeowners to collect a "tourist development tax" if they rent their homes for short-term profit to out-of-towners during Super Bowl XXXV. Officials in both counties are alerting homeowners to the tax, now that ordinary people are starting to advertise their homes for rental. The tax is nothing new; it's something homeowners traditionally don't have to deal with. The Super Bowl will be Jan. 28 in Tampa, and hotel rooms are expected to be hard to get. Some homeowners are willing to move out of their homes for a while and rent their property to visitors. Hillsborough County's tourist development tax is 5 percent of the rent the homeowner charges. In Pinellas County, the tax is 4 percent. The homeowners are expected to collect enough money from the tenants to cover the tax and to turn the tax over to their county collector. Hillsborough County is making special forms available to homeowners from its branch offices. Pinellas has also developed a form. Tourist development taxes are collected by the counties to pay for local promotional efforts. So far, the state Department of Revenue has said it won't require homeowners to collect a state sales tax on short-term occasional rentals. Hotels and motels are more
accustomed to dealing with occupancy taxes than are homeowners, who may be
looking at the expected tourist influx as a rare chance to pull in extra
income. |
