"Timeshare Exchange Tax" coming to a city near you?

[TUGBrian]

Interesting, not quite sure how this tax would be collected, or if its even significant enough to warrant the extra work/effort required to collect it?

even the lawmakers seem to agree on that front:

Foote and City Finance Director Kim Weber said it is nearly impossible to determine how many timeshare units are located in the city and how many are occupied, but The Steamboat Grand, Legacy Vacation Club, The Village at Steamboat and Sheraton Steamboat Resort Villas are the four biggest examples.

Foote said it’s difficult to estimate how much revenue the city would garner from such a tax.

Steamboat could be 1st city in Colorado to enact timeshare exchange tax

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — After a lengthy discussion Tuesday night, four members of the Steamboat Springs City Council directed City Attorney Dan Foote to explore making Steamboat the first city in Colorado to tax timeshares. Council…

www.steamboatpilot.com

 

[klpca]

Interesting, not quite sure how this tax would be collected, or if its even significant enough to warrant the extra work/effort required to collect it?

even the lawmakers seem to agree on that front:

Steamboat could be 1st city in Colorado to enact timeshare exchange tax

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — After a lengthy discussion Tuesday night, four members of the Steamboat Springs City Council directed City Attorney Dan Foote to explore making Steamboat the first city in Colorado to tax timeshares. Council…

www.steamboatpilot.com

What a money grab. It's bad enough that some locations already pay a surcharge on property taxes/

 

[montygz]

Politicians love to soak tourists with taxes. Hotel taxes, bed taxes, rental car taxes, ect.

Tourists won't be voting in the next election, so they're the perfect target.

 

[RunCat]

Interesting, not quite sure how this tax would be collected, or if its even significant enough to warrant the extra work/effort required to collect it?

even the lawmakers seem to agree on that front:

Steamboat could be 1st city in Colorado to enact timeshare exchange tax

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — After a lengthy discussion Tuesday night, four members of the Steamboat Springs City Council directed City Attorney Dan Foote to explore making Steamboat the first city in Colorado to tax timeshares. Council…

www.steamboatpilot.com

I can see this working with "exchangers" since they are not technically owners in the specific resort. I would seriously balk if it applied to everyone since the owners pay all of the other city taxes (property, mill levy) already. The resort owners would likely be required to manage the collection and documentation for the tax; like they do now for sales/hotel taxes.

It will be interesting to see how they would define an "exchanger" since it is has an internal exchange using options. If I owned at the Beaver Creek Westin and used my options go to Steamboat, since I have no direct ownership at Steamboat, would I be subject to the tax? What if I owned Sheraton Flex, in which case I did have an ownership stake? This might get complicated very quickly.

 

[dioxide45]

I can see this working with "exchangers" since they are not technically owners in the specific resort. I would seriously balk if it applied to everyone since the owners pay all of the other city taxes (property, mill levy) already. The resort owners would likely be required to manage the collection and documentation for the tax; like they do now for sales/hotel taxes.

Aren't exchangers paying that too though? They are paying all the taxes on whatever property they own when exchanging in. Say we do a one for one exchange. Why should I get to pay extra fees and taxes when I stay at your resort but you pay nothing extra at mine? I don't like add on fees, resort fees, parking fees, internet fees or other garbage fees when exchanging. I am not exchanging into a resort to subsidize their MFs.

 

[montygz]

Aren't exchangers paying that too though? They are paying all the taxes on whatever property they own when exchanging in. Say we do a one for one exchange. Why should I get to pay extra fees and taxes when I stay at your resort but you pay nothing extra at mine? I don't like add on fees, resort fees, parking fees, internet fees or other garbage fees when exchanging. I am not exchanging into a resort to subsidize their MFs.

You could certainly argue that this would amount to double taxation since timeshare owners already pay property tax.

The council members are clearly outraged they can't get tax the tourists like they do with a regular hotel. They seem to be desperate to raise money without raising taxes on their local population that would vote them out of office.

If they want to tax the timeshares, they could simply raise the property tax, but they would have to raise it on everyone in the community and that would not end well.

I would suspect this will end up going nowhere because it would likely end in a long legal battle, but never underestimate government.

 

[dioxide45]

You could certainly argue that this would amount to double taxation since timeshare owners already pay property tax.

The council members are clearly outraged they can't get tax the tourists like they do with a regular hotel. They seem to be desperate to raise money without raising taxes on their local population that would vote them out of office.

If they want to tax the timeshares, they could simply raise the property tax, but they would have to raise it on everyone in the community and that would not end well.

I would suspect this will end up going nowhere because it would likely end in a long legal battle, but never underestimate government.

Places like Hawaii, Mexico and Aruba have instituted per night occupancy taxes. So not sure why it couldn't happen in other states. Might be harder on a local level vs state level though. Of course an occupancy tax would apply to all guests, owners and exchangers alike.

 

[bobmnu]

You could certainly argue that this would amount to double taxation since timeshare owners already pay property tax.

The council members are clearly outraged they can't get tax the tourists like they do with a regular hotel. They seem to be desperate to raise money without raising taxes on their local population that would vote them out of office.

If they want to tax the timeshares, they could simply raise the property tax, but they would have to raise it on everyone in the community and that would not end well.

I would suspect this will end up going nowhere because it would likely end in a long legal battle, but never underestimate government.

Is this the first salvo on a general tax increase. First tax people who have no say in the tax then start applying it to others through losing court cases. In my county that put in a bed tax on Motels and it applied when a person stayed in the room. It was later applied to Nursing Homes amounting to several hundred dollars a year added to an already financial burden on families. There is a Constitutional question of taxation with out representation. If they can do this can they then tax you for traveling through their community? If they can do that could they put a tax on travel by any means such as a fee on each passenger for the airline landing but not departing the plane? Maybe just flying through the states air space? Local communities will find a way to tax those who can not object in a recent review I read where for "safety reasons" time share and motels were not allowed to have an oven or stove in the unit thus making the visitor use the local restaurants.

 

[alexadeparis]

Places like Hawaii, Mexico and Aruba have instituted per night occupancy taxes. So not sure why it couldn't happen in other states. Might be harder on a local level vs state level though. Of course an occupancy tax would apply to all guests, owners and exchangers alike.

Usvi too. We own there and still have to pay

 

[Foggy1]

Places like Hawaii, Mexico and Aruba have instituted per night occupancy taxes. So not sure why it couldn't happen in other states. Might be harder on a local level vs state level though. Of course an occupancy tax would apply to all guests, owners and exchangers alike.

We own 12 weeks in a Fractional Ownership condo on Maui. We have to pay the occupancy tax for every night we occupy our owned unit. Any friends that use our unit condo have to pay the tax. Taxes are collected by our resident manager, up on arrival for the number of nights occupied. Just part 'of doing business' with Hawaii.

 

[Mongoose]

Interesting, not quite sure how this tax would be collected, or if its even significant enough to warrant the extra work/effort required to collect it?

even the lawmakers seem to agree on that front:

Steamboat could be 1st city in Colorado to enact timeshare exchange tax

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — After a lengthy discussion Tuesday night, four members of the Steamboat Springs City Council directed City Attorney Dan Foote to explore making Steamboat the first city in Colorado to tax timeshares. Council…

www.steamboatpilot.com

I love how they talk about taxing timeshares is "Equitable" and spreads the tax burden. My question is if they are spreading the tax burden, show me where they cut someone taxes!