The lodging tax Airbnb was collecting for you

Almost every US state now has a marketplace facilitator law. In plain terms: when a sale happens through a platform, the platform — not the individual seller — is responsible for collecting the tax and sending it in. That is why your Airbnb payout arrives with the occupancy tax already handled, and why many owners have never filed a lodging tax return in their life.

A booking on your own website is not a marketplace sale. There is no facilitator. You are the seller, the collector and the filer.

Which authorities you are dealing with

Usually two, sometimes three, and they are separate registrations:

• The state. In Florida, that is sales tax on transient accommodation, filed with the Department of Revenue.
• The county. The tourist development tax (TDT), bed tax or occupancy tax. Some Florida counties are self-administered and collect their own TDT directly; others have the state collect it for them. Which one you are in changes who you register with and where you file.
• The city, in some places, with its own room tax on top.

County practice genuinely differs, even inside one state. Seminole County spells out that platforms remit TDT for bookings made through them while the host stays responsible for direct bookings. Santa Rosa and Flagler counties expect hosts to register and remit directly. This is why “what does Florida require” is not a useful question — the answer lives at your county tax collector.

What to do before you take the first direct booking

1. Find the two or three authorities that apply to your address. Search for “[county] tourist development tax” and start with the tax collector’s own page, not a blog. Call them. They answer, and they would rather register you than fine you.
2. Register before the first booking, not after. Registration is usually free and takes minutes. A return you file at zero costs you nothing; tax you collected without being registered is a mess.
3. Get the rate and the base right. The rate is state plus county (plus city), so 12 % and 13 % are ordinary totals. The base matters as much: in most jurisdictions the cleaning fee is taxable because it is part of what the guest pays for the stay. Refundable deposits usually are not.
4. File even when the month is empty. Most authorities want a return whether or not you had a booking, and late-filing penalties attach to the return, not to the amount.
5. Keep the two channels apart in your records. You will need to show that tax on portal bookings was remitted by the platform and that tax on direct bookings was remitted by you. Mixing them is how a perfectly compliant owner ends up looking like they underpaid.

What this looks like on the guest’s screen

The guest should see the tax as its own line before they pay, not discover it at the total. That is both what people expect from a hotel checkout and what keeps a chargeback dispute short: an itemised total is evidence of what was agreed.

What we do not do

We do not file anything on your behalf and we cannot. The website calculates the tax, itemises it for the guest, totals it per booking and exports the lot for whoever does your filing. Registering and remitting stays with you or your CPA, and anyone who offers to take that off your hands should be asked, carefully, how.

Not tax advice. Rates, bases and filing frequencies differ by county and change often; confirm yours with the authority or your CPA before you rely on any of it.