Airbnb Announces Tax Partnership With Saint Charles County

ST. CHARLES, MO — Airbnb, an online service that facilitates short-term rentals, announced Thursday a tax agreement with the St. Charles County Convention and Sports Facilities Authority that will allow the company to collect and remit local taxes on behalf of property owners.

The agreement goes into effect March 1, when Airbnb will automatically begin collecting the jurisdiction's 5 percent sleeping room tax and remitting it to the Convention and Sports Facilities Authority.

“We hope this partnership with St. Charles County will serve as a model for other counties and cities throughout Missouri, as we endeavor to help our hosts pay their fair share and deliver new revenue to local governments,” said Laura Spanjian, the company's Midwest policy director.

Airbnb has similar partnerships with more than 350 local governments throughout the United States. The agreement with St. Charles County will be Airbnb's second such arrangement in the state, the first being with the Missouri Department of Revenue to collect state-level taxes, including Missouri's 4.225 percent sales tax.

Over the past year, apartment-sharing in St. Charles and nearby St. Louis has grown by more than 150 percent, spurred in part by the August 2017 total solar eclipse, which brought thousands of tourists to the area.

"Home sharing allowed hundreds of additional eclipse-goers to experience the county and contribute to the local merchant community in the process," Airbnb said in a press release.

Photo by Ashley Ludwig/Patch