KINGSTON -Airbnb voluntarily collects room tax and remits it to Ulster County government, but several of the other short-term rental companies do not.
County Comptroller March Gallagher wants the county to collect what it is owed from all of those short-term rental companies and would like to use the services of Host Compliance, a third-party vendor the county already employs to gather short-term rental income information to be taxed.
“We compare those against our registrations and low and behold, there is a significant number of properties – 948 non-compliant short-term rentals were identified. Eight-hundred and fifty-two of those had rented within the last year and 58 percent of those had rented within the last 60 days,” she said.
That equates to approximately $65,000 to $1 million in lost revenue last year.
The additional service from Host Compliance will run $38,000 and County Executive Jen Metzger is on board with the plan, which will require county legislative approval.
