Visitors who choose to rent a vacation home in Erie County should soon see a new tax line on their bill. It’s a 3% occupancy tax, similar to the county occupancy tax that Erie County hotels and motels pay now and typically pass on to customers.
The Erie County Legislature unanimously passed a new law last week establishing the tax, which would be levied on short-term rentals typically found on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo.
Legislators on both sides of the aisle raised questions and debated the merits of the draft language of proposed changes to the law.
The law, which the Comptroller’s Office has been tinkering with for roughly a year, is designed to capitalize on the explosion of short-term vacation rentals that have expanded “nontraditional” accommodation choices for visitors. Revenue raised by the new tax would benefit local tourism promotion efforts, according to the law passed Thursday.
“This is a tax, for the most part, on visitors to Erie County, not people who are paying property tax here,” County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick said. “Every dollar we raise in some other manner is a dollar we don’t pay in property tax.”
Patrick Kaler, president of Visit Buffalo Niagara, estimated that Erie County has about 2,000 privately owned properties that…
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