The Nebraska Department of Revenue recently released a general information letter providing clarifications on how recent legislation changes tax obligations for short-term rental businesses.

The letter addresses the proper tax base for lodging and sales taxes imposed on short-term rentals of lodging after the passage of Legislative Bill 284, which addresses tax collection for remote sellers and multivendor marketplace platforms such as Airbnb.

“The tax base for a short-term rental under the provisions of the Nebraska sales tax, and by reference, the lodging tax also, is the total consideration paid by the consumer, in this case the guest, to the retailer or seller of property or services (including an MMP) valued in money, whether received in money or otherwise,” the letter states. “The tax base includes any charges imposed by the retailer (including an MMP) that are necessary to complete the sale and any local occupation tax imposed by a municipality.”

LB 284 now requires multivendor marketplace platforms (MMP) to collect sales and lodging taxes. The state previously entered into separate agreements with platforms to waive the tax collection responsibility of individual hotel and tourist homeowners, but that program is superseded by the new statutory requirements.

Hotel and tourist homeowners do not have to collect and remit sales and lodging taxes on sales facilitated by a platform like Airbnb if the platform reports and remits those taxes. They are still required to collect and remit sales and lodging taxes on sales that are not facilitated by the platform.

Find more information about the general information letter online at www.revenue.nebraska.gov/legal/GIL/GILs.html.