SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Word is spreading throughout Sullivan County: tax laws have changed, and the changes are coming for short-term rentals.

The county’s Hotel and Motel Room Occupancy Tax Law had its most recent update on March 18. The update redefined a taxable lodging facility as “any shelter being used for lodging on an overnight basis which is not owned and/or provided by the occupant,” clearly bringing short-term rentals like Airbnbs and Vrbos under the tax law’s jurisdiction.

All short-term rentals must now register under the update to pay the room occupancy tax, which currently stands at five percent. Renters are required to register and to file quarterly, even if no tax needs to be collected, to keep records consistent.

After passing the law, the county has begun to search out unregistered short-term rentals. Sullivan County Treasurer Nancy Buck sent town supervisors a letter on June 4, asking them for help identifying short-term rentals who may not have properly registered.

“I understand that these property owners may not be aware of our Hotel and Motel Room Occupancy Tax Law,” reads the letter. “If you know of any property owners who regularly rent their properties on a short-term basis, I would ask that you refer these residents to our office so that we may have them properly register as a rental facility.”

As the county adjusts to new changes in tax policy, the question remains of what they were intended to accomplish and of what the effect will be. According to Buck, the recent changes were about clarity more than anything. The new change to the tax law took out a lot of legal language, simplifying wording and definitions while remaining broad enough to cover cases legislators haven’t yet considered. The impetus then lies with towns to work with the treasury, identifying short-term rentals that may be known to the towns and not to the county.

Some towns are already working with the county to identify short-term rentals. Other towns have less of an interest in examining their short-term rental population.

“How many outlaw Airbnbs are there in this town?” asked Gary Maas, town supervisor for Cochecton. “I have no idea.”

Part of the problem with taking too close a look at short-term rentals, said Maas, is in issues of liability. If the town starts registering short-term rentals, it starts to take on code enforcement duties, and duties of enforcing noise ordinances.

While the town takes on extra liability, any of the extra funding from the county’s tax law goes directly to the county. And while the tax law guarantees that money is used to promote tourism in the region, benefiting the county as a whole, it can be hard to see direct benefits for the individual towns.

Whether towns get involved in regulating short-term rentals or not, it’s clear that discussions about their existence and taxation aren’t close to over. According to Maas, short-term rentals became much more popular during the pandemic, their growth making up for the loss of revenue from hotels and casinos. This may be a temporary trend from the pandemic, or it may be a permanent shift in the tourism patterns in Sullivan County. Either way, there’s still much to discuss about how they should be handled.