Austin Business CPA AlternativeA house that rents by the night

The platform collects one piece

Since April 1, 2025, this city has required short term rental booking platforms to collect and remit the city's hotel occupancy tax for the owner. The owner still files a quarterly report. That is the city's own rule, and it does not close the federal schedule and it does not close the books.

The state hotel tax is 6 percent of the room when the state's rules say the tax applies. The city has reported a chapter 351 rate of 9 percent and a chapter 334 rate of 2 percent. Keep those pieces separate when you read a listing screen. A single line labeled tax on a guest receipt is not a reconciliation.

A new short term rental license in this city has been listed at 836.30 dollars in total, a 789 dollar license fee plus a 47.30 dollar notification fee, good for two years. A renewal has been listed at 385.30 dollars, a 338 dollar renewal plus the same notification fee. A new single family license has been taking about 6 to 8 weeks, and a renewal about 4 to 6 weeks. Those are city fee figures, not a quote from us.

Operators are also told to keep a local contact in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, or Caldwell who can answer an emergency within two hours. That rule is about the house. It is not a bookkeeping method. We still want the payouts from the platform tied to the bank, because a payout is not the same number as a guest's nightly rate.

What the books have to show

The bank receives a net deposit. The guest paid a larger number. The difference is fees and taxes the platform kept or remitted. If the net deposit is booked as the only income, the year is understated and the fees never appear. We gross the stay up and record the fees, so the return and the city report are looking at the same stay.

Personal nights in the house matter. A week you stayed there is not a week a guest stayed there. We want that week out of rental income and out of the expenses that belong only to rental nights. The rule is ordinary. The records are what make it true.

We are all Texans, and the little houses beside the water that grew into a late street are still a neighborhood the people next door recognize. A house that rents by the night can sit in a block with a mood. The filings do not care about the mood. They care about the nights, the rate, and who remitted which tax.

What we will not sign

We will not sign an audit of a rental schedule. We will close the months, set the chart so platform payouts are not mistaken for rent, and prepare the return from that close. If a lender wants a reviewed statement, that request leaves this practice.

If you have one house, send the month the platform started paying you. If you have several, say so. The fee follows the number of open months and the mess in the payout report, which is the same rule as any other file on this site.