Homeowners who rent their properties for 30 days or fewer at a time should find a letter in the mail reminding them, if they are not already registered, that they must register as a landlord in the county and pay the Warren County occupancy, or “bed,” tax.
This is the case, officials say, whether they have rented their properties themselves or used an online app such as VRBO or Airbnb. Rentals of up to 30 days at a time are considered short term.
The county has about 300 registered, but the estimate is that 700 landlords exist, said Don Lehman, a spokesman for the county.
The roughly 400 missing might not be scofflaws, he said, as they may just be confused.
For instance, they may have registered with municipalities in the county, such as Lake George Village which has a short-term rental law on the books, but did not realize they also had to register with the county.
Cities, towns, villages and hamlets do not collect the occupancy tax, Lehman said. The county does.
On the other hand, landlords still must register with the county even if the municipality, such as the Town of Bolton, does not have an STR law.
"The town's are registering [landlords] for other reasons," Lehman said.
In Bolton, for example, town leadership is considering an STR ordinance that officials have said would add some rules-of-the-road to rentals inside residential neighborhoods.
Bolton may collect fees for the permitting process but they are not collecting bed tax. [See more on this here, and here.]
The county law, levying a 4% tax on STRs, as short term rentals are known, came about when hotels and motels in the area realized they were at a competitive disadvantage, collecting taxes on rooms that homeowner-landlords avoided, Lehman said.
In the meantime, the county hired staff last year to help find rogue landlords, Lehman said.
"Basically, they just monitor the listings,” he said of the new hires. They look to realtor listings, craigslist, VRBO, Airbnb and other apps. Since some localities already have registrations, the county staff can look there too and compare registrants.
He said they “beat the bushes to figure out what's out there."
The county may impose penalties of up to 5%, plus interest, for failing to remit occupancy tax to the County Treasurer under the Warren County Occupancy Tax Law, the press release said.
“We are happy to work with owners of short-term rentals to make this process as easy as possible and to walk them through compliance with the Warren County Occupancy Tax Law,” Warren County Treasurer Michael Swan said in the press release.
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Information and registration forms can be found at warrencountyny.gov/treasurer/bedtax.
Property owners can also contact Warren County Treasurer Michael Swan’s office at 518-761-6379 or email swanm@warrencountyny.gov to register.