Section
113.01 Purpose
113.02 Definitions
113.03 Tax imposed
113.04 Collection
113.05 Short term rental hosting platform fees
113.06 Exemptions
113.07 Registry
113.08 Remittances and returns
113.09 Penalties and interest
113.10 Deficiencies, fraud, refusal to collect, evasion
113.11 Redetermination
113.12 Collections
113.13 Liens
113.14 Refunds
113.15 Administration
113.16 Notice
113.17 Appeals
113.18 Intergovernmental agreement
113.99 Violations and penalty
The following definitions apply in this chapter.
BOOKING SERVICE. Any reservation and/or payment service provided by a person or entity that facilitates a short term rental transaction between a host and a prospective occupant, and for which the person or entity collects or receives, directly or indirectly through an agent or intermediary, a fee in connection with the reservation and/or payment services provided for the short term rental transaction. Booking services include directly or indirectly accepting, receiving or facilitating payment, whether or not the person or entity is the ultimate recipient of the payment, including through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or other computerized devices where third party providers receive information about a transaction and collect funds for the transient lodging occupancy from an occupant.
HOST. The owner or person who resides at a short term rental or has been designated by the owner or resident of the short term rental and who rents out the short term rental for transient lodging occupancy either directly or through the use of a hosting platform.
HOSTING PLATFORM. A person or entity that participates in the short term rental business by collecting or receiving a fee for booking services through which a host may offer a transient lodging facility. Hosting platforms usually, though not necessarily, provide booking services through an online platform that allows a host to advertise the transient lodging through a website provided by the hosting platform and provides a means for the hosting platform to conduct a transaction by which prospective occupants arrange transient lodging and payment, whether occupant pays rent directly to the host or to the hosting platform.
LOCAL TAX TRUSTEE. The operator or hosting platform or designee thereof that accepts, receives or facilitates the payment directly from the occupant, whether or not the operator or hosting platform is the ultimate recipient of the payment.
OCCUPANCY. The right to the use or possession of any space in transient lodging for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes for less than 30 days.
OCCUPANT. Any individual who exercises occupancy or is entitled to occupancy in transient lodging for a period of 30 consecutive calendar days or less, counting portions of calendar days as full days.
OPERATOR. Means:
(1) Any person who provides transient lodging for occupancy to the general public for compensation. Furnishing accommodations can be done via employees, contractors, agents or any other person allowed to process reservations and accept payment for the transient lodging on behalf of the transient lodging provider;
(2) Any person that facilitates the reservations of an accommodation and collects the payment for the transient lodging reservation from the occupant; or
(3) Any transient lodging provider, transient lodging intermediary or transient lodging tax collector as defined in O.R.S. 320.300.
PERSON. Any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, limited liability company, corporation, limited liability partnership, association, host, social club, fraternal organization, fraternity, sorority, public or private dormitory, joint stock company, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, trustee, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
RENT. The consideration paid or payable by an occupant for the occupancy of space in transient lodging valued in money, goods, labor, credits, property, or other consideration. If a separate fee is charged for services, goods or commodities and the fee is optional, that fee is not included in rent.
SHORT-TERM RENTAL. A house, duplex, multi-plex, apartment, condominium, houseboat, trailer or other residential dwelling unit where a person rents guest bedrooms or the entire residential dwelling unit for transient lodging occupancy.
TAX ADMINISTRATOR. The City Administrator/Recorder, or their designee, which may include the Oregon Department of Revenue. If the city utilizes the Oregon Department of Revenue as its Tax Administrator, it will comply with O.R.S. 305.620 in that it will follow the rules adopted by the Department of Revenue regarding the administration, collection, enforcement, and distribution of transient lodging taxes.
TRANSIENT LODGING or TRANSIENT LODGING FACILITIES. Means:
(1) Hotel, motel and inn dwelling units that are used for temporary overnight human occupancy;
(2) Spaces used for overnight parking of recreational vehicles or placement of tents during periods of human occupancy; or
(3) Houses, cabins, condominiums, apartment units or other dwelling units, or portions of any of these dwelling units that are used for temporary human occupancy.
TLT or TAX. The transient lodging tax.
(Ord. 565, passed 3-14-2022; Ord. 566, passed 8-8-2022)
(A) For the privilege of occupancy in any transient lodging or transient lodging facility, each occupant shall pay a tax in the amount of 5% of the rent. The tax constitutes a debt owed by the occupant to the city, which is extinguished only by payment to the transient lodging provider at the time the rent is paid.
(B) Tax amounts shall be rounded down to the nearest cent.
(C) The transient lodging provider shall enter the tax on the provider's records when the rent is collected. If the rent is paid in installments, a proportionate share of the tax shall be paid by the occupant to the transient lodging provider with each installment.
(D) Bills, receipts or invoices provided to occupants shall list the city's TLT separately and must accurately state the amount of the tax. All amounts listed as TLT on invoices, bills or receipts must be reported as TLT and, after collection, must be turned over to the city, less the 5% administrative charge.
(Ord. 565, passed 3-14-2022) Penalty, see § 113.99
(A) Every local tax trustee shall collect the TLT at the time rent is paid unless an exemption applies. If payment is by credit card, for purposes of this section, payment is made at the time the credit card information is provided to the local tax trustee, not when the local tax trustee ultimately receives credit for the transaction. While holding the payment in trust for the city, a local tax trustee may commingle the tax proceeds with the local tax trustee's funds, but the local tax trustee is not the owner of tax proceeds, except that, when a return is filed, the local tax trustee becomes the owner of the administrative fee authorized to be retained. Local tax trustees may choose to file returns and remit payment based on amounts accrued but not yet collected. The local tax trustee is liable for any TLT that should have been collected from the occupant, except in cases of nonpayment of rent by the occupant.
(B) Upon request of the city, local tax trustees must provide all physical addresses of transient lodging facilities within the city limits and the related contact information, including the name and mailing address, of the general manager, agent, owner, host or other responsible person for the location.
(Ord. 565, passed 3-14-2022)
A hosting platform for short term rentals may collect a fee for booking services in connection with short term rentals only when those short term rentals are lawfully registered as operators with the city and possess a certificate of authority at the time the short term rental is occupied.
(Ord. 565, passed 3-14-2022) Penalty, see § 113.99
(A) Every person engaging or about to engage in business as an operator shall provide a completed registration form to the Tax Administrator within 30 calendar days after commencing business. The registration form shall require the operator to provide the name of the business, any separate business address, and other information as the Tax Administrator may require to implement this chapter. Operators who own or operate transient lodging facilities in the City of Union shall provide the address of the lodging facility. The registration form shall be signed by the operator. The Tax Administrator shall, within 15 business days after registration, issue, without charge, a certificate of authority to collect the TLT.
(B) The obligation to collect the TLT is imposed once rent for transient lodging is paid, even if the registration form has not been filed or if the certificate has not been issued. If rent transaction is facilitated online, the certificate of authority must be able to be viewed by the occupant by clicking on the link to the certificate of authority at a reasonable place during the payment transaction.
(C) Certificates shall be nonassignable and nontransferable, and shall be surrendered to the Tax Administrator when the business is sold or transferred or when a lodging facility ceases to operate at the location specified in the registration form. Each certificate issued to an operator for a specific lodging facility shall be prominently displayed at the lodging facility and include:
(1) The name of the operator;
(2) The address of the transient lodging facility;
(3) The date the certificate was issued; and
(4) The certificate number as assigned by the Tax Administrator.
(D) A certificate does not constitute a permit.
(Ord. 565, passed 3-14-2022) Penalty, see § 113.99
(A) Local tax trustees shall submit a completed tax return form to the Tax Administrator for each calendar month by the fifteenth of the following month, accompanied by remittance of all tax collected, less a 5% administration fee. If the estimated monthly amount of average tax due is $100 or less, the local tax trustee has the option of filing the return and remitting the tax on a quarterly basis on the fifteenth day of the month following the end of each calendar quarter (April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 15). Local tax trustees shall also submit any tax that was due but not collected if the rent on which the tax is based was paid.
(B) The local tax trustee is entitled to the administration fee. If a transient lodging facility has multiple operators they are not entitled to retain additional fees.
(C) Remittances are delinquent if not made by the 15th day of the month in which they are due.
(D) Returns shall show the gross rents collected, taxable rents, the total amount of TLT collected and the amount of the administrative fee retained by the local tax trustee. Returns shall also show the exempt and excluded rents and the basis for exemptions and exclusions.
(E) Tax returns and remittances may be submitted in person or by mail. If the return and remittance is mailed the postmark shall be considered the date of delivery.
(F) The Tax Administrator may extend the time for making any return or remittance of the tax by up to 30 calendar days. No further extension shall be granted, except by the City Council. Any local tax trustee to whom an extension is granted shall pay interest at the rate of 3% per month on the amount of the remittance due without proration for a fraction of a month. If a return is not filed, and the remittance and interest due is not paid by the end of the extension granted, then the interest shall become a part of the room tax for computation of penalties.
(Ord. 565, passed 3-14-2022) Penalty, see § 113.99
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