Julie Ogo
REPRESENTATIVE Julie A. Ogo of Rota has introduced House Bill 23-93, entitled “To amend Title 4, Division 1, by adding a new Chapter 13 and repealing Chapter 5, § 1502, Hotel Occupancy Tax, and for other purposes.”
The bill defines “short-term accommodations” as any hotel, motel, house, and apartel (apartment hotel) facility or owners of hotels, motels, apartels, houses (the whole house or a room in a house), condominium and apartment units, or property that offers temporary accommodations or lodgings for a set fee and the length of stay of a guest(s) does not exceed 360 days.
“Transient Accommodation” is defined as a short-term accommodation, lodging, or living accommodation of any kind, for a set daily, nightly, weekly, or monthly fee multiplied by the length of stay, not exceeding 360 days, that a guest rents in the Commonwealth.
“We needed to tailor the bill to facilitate efficient enforcement of the laws and regulations by providing the mechanisms and tools for the responsible government agencies to audit and inspect facilities and their operations,” Ogo said. “The Department of Finance and the Zoning Board need to make sure that properties for B&B operations are not disguised as house or residential rentals,” she added.
The bill would also provide that all online and local platforms where “transient accommodations” are advertised, provide booking, and payment collection services are required to register with the Department of Finance to be certified for a fee through their local clients before engaging in an agreement to host bookings, payment service, and advertisements. These hosting platforms will be required to file separate supporting records indicating their names, registration certificate numbers, names and addresses of local operators and booking data at the end of each Business Gross Tax Return cycle to be filed as a supporting document to the Hotel Occupancy Tax filing.
Ogo said this will assist the Department of Finance in their auditing effort by giving them an edge to cross check and verify reported income of local operators on Business Gross Revenue filing.
“We have been receiving inconsistent revenue reporting from the Department of Finance on B&B operations and many of the B&B clients have also been reporting that they were never charged Hotel Occupancy Tax, therefore, we need to do everything we can to give our regulatory agencies the legal foundation to promulgate efficient rules and regulations to verify reporting accuracy and collect due tax revenue, especially now that we are facing financial challenges. This measure should be understood by our agencies and general public as part of an effort not to resort to imposing more taxes. We all must work together by being each other’s eyes and ears so the government can continue providing public services,” Ogo said.
If anyone wants a copy of the bill and comment on it, contact Representative Julie A. Ogo’s office at (670) 664-8888 or email kuentosmarianas@gmail.com/.
