Plumas County is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in fees that are not collected from tourists who spend the night in local lodges. Changing that – and ending years of frustration – could take just two easy steps.
Sharon Roberts, treasurer of Plumas County Tourism, made those requests of the Plumas County Board of Supervisors at their Dec. 10 meeting. First, she asked the supervisors to update information about lodging fees on the county website. Her second request was to allow her organization, formerly known as Feather River Tourism Association, to work directly with Airbnb, Inc., an international online marketplace for homestays.
The goal, Roberts said, is to make it clear that all lodging providers, including vacation rentals, are required to have a Transient Occupancy Tax certificate. And, of course, to collect the fees explained in the certificate.
Plumas County Tourism has been asking the supervisors to clarify lodging fees for four years, Roberts said. There are two: a 9% fee that goes into the county’s general fund to help support the sheriff’s office, roads and libraries; and a 2% fee specially assigned to promote tourism, a pillar of the local economy.
Airbnb collects the 9% TOT tax and returns it to the county. The 2% fee is designed to be collected by lodge owners, who return it for use by the tourism association. Failing to collect the 2% fee is costing PCT around $50,000 a year, 20% of its budget, Roberts told the supervisors.
In the two months since Oct. 1, when Roberts and PCT last attended a supervisors’ meeting, they have made progress in communications with Airbnb. They are working with Kevin Morales, a policy associate with the company. Airbnb is willing to send out letters of non-compliance to lodge owners who are not collecting the 2% fee, Roberts said.
She asked the supervisors to approve the direct working relationship PCT has developed with Airbnb. That would allow Rogers and her association to iron out the details of letters Airbnb sends to Plumas County lodges without returning to the supervisors for approval. Having the county’s backing “would have some clout that our organization doesn’t have,” she said.
The supervisors did not vote to give PCT that authority Dec. 10. Instead, Supervisor Dwight Ceresola, who chaired the Dec. 10 meeting, placed it on the agenda for the board’s Dec. 17 meeting.
Updating the county website has been problematic. The treasurer/tax collector’s section of the website includes a page for the TOT forms for registration and returning the tax. That covers the basics, but it’s not enough information to alert lodge owners of their responsibilities, Roberts said.
“Most people don’t know that they need to get a TOT certificate, particularly the Airbnb hosts. They have not been educated that they need a TOT certificate because Airbnb is paying <the tax> for them,” she said.
To be fair to new lodging providers, information about the TOT certificate, including their responsibility to collect the 2% tourism tax, needs to be spelled out on the website, she said. That has to be done by Treasurer/Tax Collector Julie White herself, said County Administrative Officer Debra Lucero.
Roberts reported that she had sent White numerous notifications since early November with proposed website wording but had received no response. White did not attend the Dec. 10 meeting.
When members of the public at that meeting commented on her absence, Supervisor Jeff Engel said, “Do you know what day it is?”
Dec. 10 is the deadline for homeowners to file property taxes. “I’m over my head in collecting taxes,” White told The Plumas Sun after the meeting. She said she is willing to look at PCT’s proposed language while working with the county counsel’s office to amend the wording of the website language on TOT taxes.
“But at the end of the day, <PCT> is not part of the county. We will determine what’s appropriate,” she said.
Rick Foster, a Quincy resident who frequently attends board meetings, put the onus for the delays on the supervisors.
“Here we are, four months later, nobody knows what the heck is going on, and a private entity has to come in and fix what the board should have been asking the staff to fix, specifically the tax collector,” he said.
Susan Bryner, chair of the Plumas County Tourism association, shared his frustration.
“We’re coming in front of you with a solution to a problem we’ve had. We’ve not been able to get movement through the county on this problem, and all we’re asking is two things… We’ve done our due diligence. We are just asking to partner with the county,” Bryner said.
Ceresola scheduled both the PCT’s requests for the Dec. 17 agenda.
