Hawaii Petitions Court to Subpoena Airbnb Rental Records

[Mike V.]

Interesting to see how this plays out.  Could have big implications nationwide.  Also curious why VRBO isn't included.  With this info they could also easily identify all illegal rentals and smack them with fines too.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii is seeking to find vacation rental owners who aren’t paying taxes by getting Airbnb to turn over rental records.

Hawaii News Now reports the state Department of Taxation filed a court petition last week to serve an administrative subpoena on Airbnb for rental documents dating back to 2008.

The department is investigating vacation rental owners’ compliance with the general excise and transient accommodation taxes.

State Director of Taxation Linda Takayama says the department’s goal is to get the taxes paid, which could involve penalties and interest fees if owners haven’t been paying.

Airbnb in a statement said it has received the request and is reviewing it.

[Paul Sandhu]

If some unscrupulous STR owners get socked with a large tax bill, they may be under duress to sell the property in order to pay the debt. This creates an opportunity for the legit STR owners to possibly pick up another STR property at a distressed sale price. Most of my properties are from bank foreclosures, but I have bought one from the sheriffs delinquent property tax sale for about 25 cents on the dollar.