OTTAWA – Anyone renting an Airbnb listing in the nation’s capital will have to start paying a hotel tax when the calendar turns to August.
The tax revenue will flow into municipal coffers.
The deal to collect and remit the accommodation tax marks only the second such tax agreement that the online platform has finalized in Canada.
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Airbnb already collects and remits an accommodation levy in Quebec that the company says totalled $2.8 million in fees to the province over the first six months of its tax agreement.
The online rental platform says the City of Ottawa could have received about $850,000 in tax revenue last year if a deal had been in place to collect the levy from 2,700 hosts.
Pressure from domestic businesses has been building on the Trudeau government to apply sales taxes to online services providers like Airbnb and Netflix so that the playing field is more level.
The platforms themselves have told federal officials they are open to collecting and providing the government with sales taxes, but the Liberals have shied away from implementing the idea so far.
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