Municipal Accommodation Tax

The meeting on Monday the 22nd was the Committee of the Whole. The decisom at that meeting was to take no further action. This decision will be forwarded for adoption to the February 12th Council meeting. Council will consider this recommendation at that meeting. 

That response was meant to mean that the funds from a tax would assist in enforcement efforts, and potentially the increase of resources to that department for the specific purpose of enforcing unlicensed operators. Additionally, Air BNB has made it public that they are willing and able to remit such a tax to municipalities on behalf of owners. There may potential to identify unlicensed operators through such an arrangement. Also my understanding from Air BNBs comments, they are able to apply the mandatory fee to all listings within a geographic area, licensed or unlicensed. 

 Depending on what type of information is supplied to the Town we could reference this to our list of licensed operators and possibly determine who is unlicensed. Additionally, the funds from the tax could support greater resources related to enforcement enforcement of rentals.

1. In answer to your questions, the legislation does not exempt short term rentals, including those advertised on Air BnB. However, the local by-law must establish who the tax would apply to, and there is flexibility to allow Council to make this determination. 

2. All short term rentals in Niagara-on-the-Lake offering room rentals for a period of 28 days or less are required to obtain a license by the municipality. Please see our website for more info by clicking here.

1. The accommodation operators will be responsible for collecting the tax and remitting it to the Town or delegated authority.  At this time a model for administration of the tax has yet to br established. These details would be addressed through a by-law. Should Council commit to a tax then staff will engage the industry prior to developing such a by-law.  As you are aware short term rental operators are currently required to keep a daily registry of guests, the recording of tax collected could be included within that document. It is possible that a monthly or quarterly intake form would be supplied to the town. Again these details would be addressed through a by-law which would be developed should Council commit to the implementation of a tax.

2. Ideally the implementation of a tax would make the identification of unlicensed operators easier. Operating an unlicensed short term rental and not remitting the taxes collected are both punishable offences. Also Council could use the funds from the tax to strengthen the towns enforcement efforts. 

3. As mentioned  these details have yet to be considered as there has been no commitment from council. However should Council commit to a tax these comments will definitely be considered in our development of the by-law

4. Existing bookings made prior to the passing of a by-law would be exempt from the tax. It would only apply to bookings following the implementation date. A date has yet to be decided by Council. The legislation permits municipalities to implement the tax starting December 1, 2017.

5. The exceptions would not apply to specific establishments but rather it would be applied generally based on criteria such as all short term rentals with 3 or less rooms, campsites etc. 

6.  Again these details have not been confirmed. Council through a by-law would have to recognize the Chamber of Commerce as the ‘eligible tourism entity’. At this point staff are recommending the Chanber of Commerce. Your suggestions of quarterly or annual reporting are reasonable and great a suggestion. We will consider these comments should Council commit to the implementation of a tax.

 7. Any disclosure of information would be in accordance with MFIPPA legislaslation and would not be able to be tied to a specific individual operator. 

Please in the future provide questions individually to allow the public and staff to read more easily. Thank you for the great feedback.

You are correct, the application of the tax is not mandatory. It is a new discretionary tax which municipalities have the ability to implement beginning December 1, 2017. Council has not decided to implement the tax. The report that will be discussed on January 22, 2018 requests a commitment from Council which could be defeated. 

Thank you for your comments. In answer to your questions, the legislation does not exempt short term rentals, including 'non-commercial'  zoned privately owned bed and breakfasts. The local by-law must establish who the tax would apply to, and there is flexibility to allow Council to make this determination. 

The legislation states that all municipalities that adopt the MAT and that have an existing Destination Marketing Fee (DMF) program in place would be required to share their MAT revenue with the appropriate not-for-profit tourism organization in an amount that matches the total revenue generated by the existing DMF program. For local municipalities where such a program does not exist (such as the Town), at least 50% of the MAT revenue would be shared with the respective eligible tourism entity.

Yes, at 6:30 p.m.

The tax would only be applicable to the fees associated with the rental rate of the room. Additional optional fees would not apply such as wifi, parking, resort fees etc. 

Thank you for asking this question. The report can be found on the agenda for the January 22 Committee of the Whole meeting, click here for the agenda. Additionally, the report has been added to the document library on this page. 

Currently there is nothing in the legislation that prevents the Municipality from applying a Municipal Accommodation Tax in addition to the licensing fees. However, the option is available to Council to eliminate the licensing fees should a tax be implemented. Staff appreciate this information and should council commit to implementing a tax, this is something that will be considered in the report to be prepared for Council.