Who monitors if vacation home owners correctly pay the sales tax they collect from renters? Can travelers pay these taxes directly to the appropriate agency?
Each County has a department that monitors activities on vacation rentals. Annoyed neighbours are the ones that usually like to spy on vacation rental owners and claim that they are not paying sales tax (even not knowing whether that's true or not!).
These tax departments can audit you anytime and if they find that you have been avoiding sales tax you can pay hefty fines and face jail time. Taxes in the USA are considered very serious, and unlike many other Countries, you can go to jail for a long time if you evade taxes!
Tonia is right, don't mess with sales tax as it can ruin your vacation rental business.
I don't see that a traveler would be responsible. We engage a bookeeping service to make sure that we pay the appropriate taxes for our vr. However, since we are open and honest about the taxes, at times we are at a competitive disadvantage with those who do not charge taxes. In any event, we know that we pay our taxes even if our competitors do not.
Mike
Mike L
Lake of the Ozarks Condo Rental