Either I’m missing something here or I don’t think like a bureaucrat (tax funding belongs to them, not us). Hamilton County has joined a suit against on-line travel booking sites to collect additional occupancy taxes on hotel rooms.
As near as I can discern the issue from newspaper reporting (always suspect) and applying the assumption of a $100 room and 10% tax, you would be billed $110 by the travel site. Assume a 20% commission and they pass along $88 to the hotel, which pays $8 to the county for the tax.
The suits by the taxing authorities contend that the travel sites are pocketing the extra $2 due to them. The sites are saying they’re not hotels and aren’t obligated to collect and remit the tax, so they don’t owe it. Hello? You are billing and collecting it.
The bigger question, in my mind, is why the taxing authorities are going after the money in their own behalf? If the consumer is being billed $10 for the tax and, in reality, the tax is only $8, isn’t that a fraud perpetrated on the consumer? Shouldn’t the government entities charged with the welfare of the citizens be pursuing the cash in behalf of those bilked instead of seeking to fatten their own coffers?
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