In order to prepare to set up your taxes correctly in OwnerRez, you need to first collect and document the following information:
1. What taxes are required for each of your properties? If your properties are all in the same location, then they'll be the same and you'll only have to do this once. If your properties are in different jurisdictions, you'll need to research this separately for each of them - some taxes may be the same, but others may be different.
- You can have national, state, county, city, and special district taxes. They may be a flat rate per night, a percentage of rent, a sliding scale, or a combination. You can have multiple separate taxes for the same jurisdiction - for example, a state sales tax and a state lodging tax, potentially remitted separately to different state offices.
- There may be special rules - for instance, some taxes must be paid on surcharges and fees, and others not.
- What are the rules on remitting each tax? Some taxes must be remitted based on the day of arrival, others the day of departure, and still others must be pro-rated if the booking is split between two months. Some require monthly payments of accrued taxes, others quarterly, and occasionally even weekly.
You will also need to determine the method and rules for remitting each tax. Usually, you have to establish an account with each taxing authority, and make payments via the prescribed method and schedule for each one. OwnerRez cannot make any tax payments for you, but with correct configuration, our reports can quickly tell you what taxes are due where.
2. For each of your listing site channels, and each of your locations if your properties are spread out - what taxes are collected and remitted?
- The channel may collect a tax, and remit it for you.
- The channel may collect a tax, but not remit it - they send you the money, and you are responsible to remit it to the taxing authority.
- The channel may do neither - you have to build the taxes into your rates, then back them out afterwards to know what to remit. OwnerRez is able to help with this.
- It is quite possible for a channel to do all three of the above, with three different taxes, all of which you are ultimately liable for making sure they're paid properly and on time.
- And, each channel will have a different list, for each jurisdiction.
3. For any bookings where you are collecting the guest payments yourself, you are responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting all taxes, even if the booking came through a channel.
- Vrbo and Booking.com API connections that use your credit card processor
- Direct bookings from your own or a Hosted Website
- OwnerRez can properly calculate and report all of the above, after it's configured correctly based on your research in the above steps.
When you have collected all the relevant information about the taxes that are applicable for your properties, read our support documentation about how exactly to configure them in OwnerRez for the various different possible situations.