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Homes rented for Super Bowl subject to 4% tax, county says
By Carlos Moncada, Tampa
Tribune CLEARWATER - The county is reminding folks who will rent their homes during the Super Bowl to collect a 4 percent bed tax. Hoping to cash in on Super Bowl XXXV by renting out your home to some of the estimated 100,000 visitors who will descend on the Tampa Bay area for the Jan. 28 event? Make sure you collect a 4 percent bed tax from your guests and send it in to Pinellas County. The county Tax Collector's Office collects the so-called tourist development tax on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals of less than six months. "What we're trying to do is get the word out to the people who anticipate renting their places out, so they can go ahead and collect it from the people they're renting to," Tax Collector W. Fred Petty said. "It's the law." The tax's main recipient is the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, which works to promote and advertise the tourism industry that is the mainstay of the county's economy. The Florida Department of Revenue is not expecting homeowners who only do this once, or rarely, to collect and turn over sales taxes from tenants, as it does when regularly rented vacation properties are involved, said spokesman David Bruns. Petty said he's not upset about the state's decision, even though it means Pinellas will lose out on some sales tax revenue. "In all honesty, for the state to do it, it'd probably cost them about as much money as they would get out of it," he said. "They'd have to create an account for each individual." The Tax Collector's Office will not require those renting out their homes to apply for a tourist development tax number, as is normally required, said Bob Joseph, an assistant tax collector. "We're not going to have every one of
them fill out an application, because this is an event-type thing," he
said. "So we won't have all this darn paperwork to create." |
