If you’ve been renting out your home in San Francisco through services like Airbnb and HomeAway, you’re about to start paying more taxes. The city is notifying hosts that they’ll have to submit an itemized list for items like dishes, bedding, and any other supplies they purchase for their rentals.
Starting next week, San Francisco will be telling property owners that rent out their homes that they have to submit an itemized list of all “furniture, appliances, supplies, equipment and fixtures” they use for their rentals. They’ll have to lay out costs and when they bought those items, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
This could mean anything from beds and bed linens in one bedroom to everything inside a host’s house, depending on whether they rent out just part of the home or the entire thing.
Even if you only rent out your place a few weeks a year when you’re on vacation or away for business, you’ll have to report the cost of every single item, including anything you bought before you decided to rent out your home.
Once the assessor’s office has calculated depreciation, the “business personal property” will be subject to a tax of about 1% of its value.
“We have heard loud and clear from (hosts) that they want to be treated like everybody else and are willing to pay taxes like everybody else,” Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu told the Chronicle. “They are operating their homes as a business and so we are treating them as we would any other business.”
If you bought your furniture and other fixtures several years ago, you likely won’t have too pay much after the assessor’s office accounts for depreciation.
“We believe when all is said and done, for many rentals, the assessed values will be quite low,” Chu said.
Airbnb isn’t in favor of the new tax plan, however.
“Middle-class families shouldn’t have to pay extra taxes on their sheets,” the company said. “This invasion of privacy mandates that San Franciscans inventory and pay taxes on every picture frame, towel and spoon in their home.”
SF wants Airbnb hosts to pay taxes on beds, stoves and cutlery [San Francisco Chronicle]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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