Counties Urge Fair, Equitable Taxation for Home Amenity Rentals

On March 2, 2023, MACo Legislative Director Kevin Kinnally testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in support of HB 1064 – Home Amenity Rentals – Sales and Use Tax Imposed and Local Tax Authorized with amendments.

This bill requires “home amenity rental intermediaries” or “home amenity rental platforms” – facilitators coordinating the sale or use of a home amenity between guests and hosts – to collect and remit specified state and local taxes. Counties suggest a simplifying amendment to merely subject these short-term amenity rentals to existing local taxes on hotels and similar short-term rental transactions.

From the MACo Testimony:

The bill defines “home amenity” as any portion, whether indoors or outdoors, of a residential property, excluding bedrooms or any portion of the property intended for sleeping quarters, that is occupied by the hour and for not more than 15 hours consecutively. As introduced, this bill applies the state sales and use tax to home amenity rentals, but arbitrarily caps the rates counties may apply to the same transactions. MACo urges amendments to automatically subject these transactions to applicable local hotel taxes. HB 1064, if amended to include applicable local hotel taxes, would establish fair and equitable tax treatment of home amenity rentals for both state and local taxation purposes.