After more than a year of conversation, the city of Denver and Airbnb have reached an agreement to allow Airbnb to collect taxes on behalf of hosts and remit to the city.
The change goes into effect for all guests who book on April 1 or later.
This reduces one of the biggest headaches for Denver short-term rental hosts because before you either had to take it out of your existing earnings or ask for the payment separately, which was a hassle.
Now all you do is set your price. Airbnb will automatically add on the taxes and collect it from hosts and send it to the city. What's interesting is that Airbnb will NOT share any individualized data with the city.
"We will be filing one tax return per jurisdiction with the total combined reservation revenue for all Airbnb bookings in the area," Airbnb said. "This means that all hosts will be represented by one payment amount, and we will not be providing your personal information on the return."
All I can say is, "Finally!" Many other cities had figured this out awhile ago. I'm glad Denver finally did as well.