Collecting TAXES

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Buckeye

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Where our inn does business there exists a State SALES Tax and a County HOTEL/BED Tax.
In my anticipation of using ResKey as my PMS, I only see one box for "Exempt". Either taxable or non-taxable.
Unfortunately, County Taxes (where I am anyway) are applied REGARDLESS of non-profit or not. So, the "Exempt" box is problematic.
It's Illegal here to exempt anyone from Hotel/Bed taxes unless there is a specific waiver.
Has anyone using ResKey dealt with this issue? It looks like ResKey is down for the count with us if this can't be resolved. Smaller B&Bs (usually 4-5 rooms or less) don't have to deal with this tax issue. There's usually an exemption for small B&Bs. Hence, ResKey may work VERY well for many of you....but not larger properties. We have 20 rooms. I've talked to John, and while he understands our dilemma, ResKey (at this time at least) does not have a way to select for State Sales tax and Local Bed Tax. Either both or neither. Drat.
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I am not sure I understand your problem -- where is the Exempt box you are talking about? When I look at setting up a rate plan, there are check boxes for which taxes apply to that rate plan (you can have more than one tax scheme). Or are you trying to make adjustments at the level of individual transactions?
 
I don't get it either. Wish I could help. We usually ask John to make adjustments as need be and in fact the larger properties were the first he set rezkey up for, and we jumped on board.
You need NO TAX, or EXEMPT on each room, overall, ? You would need to apply only part of the tax?
Do you have so many that do not pay tax? I mean we have gvmt and non profits that pay the tax here, religious groups, etc. they all pay it. I have never had anyone tell me not to charge it.
 
OK, I see the Exempt box on the reservation management screen. We only have one tax, but I wonder -- if you click the blue word "Tax," it will put a box showing the breakdown of the taxes -- I know with discounts you can click a "remove" button next to each line item in the equivalent box -- maybe it would be possible to do the same with the taxes?
But as JB says, how often are you really going to have to deal with this? Do you get a lot of business that is exempt from the state tax but not the county tax?
Maybe there is a workaround that would use the "fee" facility to add back in the part of the tax that you can't exempt? (Something you would have to do manually to the affected reservations).
Or maybe another workaround might be to create different versions of your rate plan, using a special reservation page for the exempt users instead of your regular reservation page?
 
The "Exempt" box - (located on the incoming Reservation), only interfaces with the "Total Tax" which is the sum of Sales and Hotel and whatever other taxes are input during set-up.
Since Hotel/Bed tax is typically a %age (for us it's 3%), the "FEE" field is really not practical.
I am in a college area. I derive 10-15% of revenue through Non-Profit "Tax Exempt" customers. Overall, this is about 300-400 reservations per year.
So...regular B&Bs don't have to collect County/Tourism Board/Chamber of Commerce taxes. But if you are classified as an "inn" or "hotel/motel" due to number of rooms.....collection is mandatory.
 
I don't get it either. Wish I could help. We usually ask John to make adjustments as need be and in fact the larger properties were the first he set rezkey up for, and we jumped on board.
You need NO TAX, or EXEMPT on each room, overall, ? You would need to apply only part of the tax?
Do you have so many that do not pay tax? I mean we have gvmt and non profits that pay the tax here, religious groups, etc. they all pay it. I have never had anyone tell me not to charge it..
He does say they have an ongoing account where they only charge one of the taxes (county) but the state can be exempt. I would guess this can be fixed 'after the fact' if the reservation is made online, which I would not think is the case with an ongoing account.
So, it seems like it could be manipulated 'behind the scenes'. I can have lodging, sales and 'x' tax in my system. I would think rezkey has a similar setup because they have so much going behind the scenes. I can also take out whatever of those taxes applies to a certain account. So, gov employees or educational reservations I can remove whichever tax doesn't apply.
Manually. This doesn't happen by itself. Maybe they want an auto system?
 
The "Exempt" box - (located on the incoming Reservation), only interfaces with the "Total Tax" which is the sum of Sales and Hotel and whatever other taxes are input during set-up.
Since Hotel/Bed tax is typically a %age (for us it's 3%), the "FEE" field is really not practical.
I am in a college area. I derive 10-15% of revenue through Non-Profit "Tax Exempt" customers. Overall, this is about 300-400 reservations per year.
So...regular B&Bs don't have to collect County/Tourism Board/Chamber of Commerce taxes. But if you are classified as an "inn" or "hotel/motel" due to number of rooms.....collection is mandatory..
Ah, maybe John can add an option where you can take out the appropriate tax. Or, are there more than 2 tax fields you can fill in? Maybe 'exempt' the total tax but then add back in the 'other tax' field? I would think you'd have more than 2 tax fields on rezkey as many places have to collect state, county and town tax.
Do these folks call you directly to make these reservations? You can probably fiddle with it until you come up with something you can standardize on your side of things. If they book online can you use the fields that are set up for adding discount codes? The person would click 'tax exempt' but they'd have to add their tax exempt ID. You'd still have to figure out how to add in the county tax, tho.
 
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
 
ResKey lets you set up any number of different tax rates. I have the following ones set up:
City Hospitality Tax 2%
Sales Tax 8.75%
State Tourism Tax 2%
I have ResKey automatically apply these to each reservation, so it shows each on the guest's statement. I could combine them into one rate of 12.75% but prefer to have it "itemize" them.
If someone is tax exempt for some reason, you can eliminate taxing that one reservation using the Tax Exempt checkbox on their reservation screen.
You can set up different rate plans also, and indicate which of the multiple taxes apply to a specific plan. So you could have a plan for Room 1 that charges all taxes, and you can have another rate plan for Room 1 that only charges hospitality tax but not sales tax.
 
Working on the "RATE PLAN" angle, trying to figure it out. If I can't get this to work, I may need to migrate over to RezNexus....the price difference is a bit steeper though....
 
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements..
hearthstoneinn said:
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
And don't forget peeps, those who live in a no sales tax state ALSO do not have to pay sales tax when they go to other states (Oregon being one of those, if they show their driver's license with OR on it).
 
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements..
hearthstoneinn said:
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
And don't forget peeps, those who live in a no sales tax state ALSO do not have to pay sales tax when they go to other states (Oregon being one of those, if they show their driver's license with OR on it).
.
Joey Bloggs said:
hearthstoneinn said:
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
And don't forget peeps, those who live in a no sales tax state ALSO do not have to pay sales tax when they go to other states (Oregon being one of those, if they show their driver's license with OR on it).
Never heard that one before JB and do not believe that to be correct unless YOUR state allows that specifically. I know it is not the case here in my state and the only ones that can be excused from sales tax are international travelers but even then there are rules such as what can be tax free and where they can purchase such as a tax free zone in big city near us. I did a quick Google search and came up with this and this which directly mentions Oregon residents.
 
I think you will find that it is often the case that the sellers of high-value durable goods (such as cars and trucks) located in states that collect sales tax (e.g. VT, ME), but located in communities bordering states that do not have a sales tax (NH), can sell their goods tax-free to residents from the non-sales tax border state, so long as those people take their purchases with them back to their home state straight away. But this generally doesn't apply to rooms and meals taxes.....
 
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements..
hearthstoneinn said:
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
And don't forget peeps, those who live in a no sales tax state ALSO do not have to pay sales tax when they go to other states (Oregon being one of those, if they show their driver's license with OR on it).
.
We don't charge sales tax, we charge lodging tax. But, I know you can't pull out your wallet at any random store, show your ID and not pay sales tax. Now, big ticket items like cars the dealership works out the details with your state. But private citizen pays sales tax in all other cases.
 
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements..
hearthstoneinn said:
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
And don't forget peeps, those who live in a no sales tax state ALSO do not have to pay sales tax when they go to other states (Oregon being one of those, if they show their driver's license with OR on it).
.
We don't charge sales tax, we charge lodging tax. But, I know you can't pull out your wallet at any random store, show your ID and not pay sales tax. Now, big ticket items like cars the dealership works out the details with your state. But private citizen pays sales tax in all other cases.
.
Madeleine said:
But private citizen pays sales tax in all other cases.
Absolutely. No way is an Arkansas merchant going to waive sales tax because the Oregon legislature says Oregon has no sales tax. Never heard of such a thing. Not gonna happen.You come here, you pay our taxes like everybody else, or you don't get the merchandise. Amen.
 
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements..
hearthstoneinn said:
Still working on this. Fact is, non-profits (501(C)(3) are not required to pay SALES tax anywhere in the U.S. Then, there are State Sales Tax exemptions (churches, humanitarian organizations, charities, etc.) which are not Federally 501 (c)(3).
Everybody, regardless of "exemption" is required to pay OCCUPANCY TAX (Hotel Tax/Bed tax, whatever...).
MOST Tax Exempts call in reservations. We have several private colleges we cater to, and most institutional guests get filtered through the schools' Tax Exempt status. BUT once we go live online with a Booking Engine, setting up Tax-Exempt correctly would be an in-house operation - I won't allow "Tax Exempt" to go live/online (such as "check this box if you are Tax Exempt") since many folks do not understand that State Sales and County Occupancy are different taxes with different requirements.
And don't forget peeps, those who live in a no sales tax state ALSO do not have to pay sales tax when they go to other states (Oregon being one of those, if they show their driver's license with OR on it).
.
We don't charge sales tax, we charge lodging tax. But, I know you can't pull out your wallet at any random store, show your ID and not pay sales tax. Now, big ticket items like cars the dealership works out the details with your state. But private citizen pays sales tax in all other cases.
.
Madeleine said:
But private citizen pays sales tax in all other cases.
Absolutely. No way is an Arkansas merchant going to waive sales tax because the Oregon legislature says Oregon has no sales tax. Never heard of such a thing. Not gonna happen.You come here, you pay our taxes like everybody else, or you don't get the merchandise. Amen.
.
I guess it is like the VAT tax when you travel overseas and you get to file for a refund (which is oh so easy nowadays if you put most of it on a credit card when you travel).
(Sorry to sidetrack this thread, but I was not understanding the orig issue)
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

I know when we lived in WA State you could waive your OR driver's license and not pay sales tax. Now it may have been a scheme to INVITE them to WA to shop, I don't know who or why it all happened. Same with Canadians to the North who shopped over the border.
 
"Now it may have been a scheme to INVITE them to WA to shop, I don't know who or why it all happened."
That's exactly it, JB. The states the have a sales tax recognize that their merchants are at a competitive disadvantage is they are bordering a state that does not have a sales tax, so the merchant lobbies have convinced the state legislatures to forgo the tax revenue from people coming across the border. But then the sales-tax state tries to make up for it by attempting to collect the tax (aka "use" tax) from its residents who purchase things in the no-tax state to bring back into their home state....
But this is getting away from hearthstoneinn's problem of having multiple taxes and needing to be able to exempt some customers from one of those taxes but not the other.
 
Working on the "RATE PLAN" angle, trying to figure it out. If I can't get this to work, I may need to migrate over to RezNexus....the price difference is a bit steeper though.....
hearthstoneinn said:
Working on the "RATE PLAN" angle, trying to figure it out. If I can't get this to work, I may need to migrate over to RezNexus....the price difference is a bit steeper though....
Excuse me but I am having a problem getting my head around this statement. You must have employees with 20 rooms, therefore someone who can manually go into a reservation (you CAN have a field that states non-profit or however it needs to be worded with yes or no required to be checked) and remove non-applicable taxes. What I cannot grasp is that you are willing to pay the fee RezNeus will cost over the cost of Rezkey? If 400 nights is only 10 - to 15% of your business (congratulations) I do believe it would not take that long to make that fix in a reservation when you are paying someone to be there anyway. Whatever - it is your business and your wallet. I guess I am strange because I do a lot of things to save a couple dollars - like going back to mowing my yard. Going into the computer and hitting a few keys would be nothing.
 
First, thanks to Gillumhouse for the "perspective"
regular_smile.gif
. We do probably 300 room nights under Tax Exempt. These represent maybe 100-150 reservations (multi-night stays). Indeed, for the cost differential between the 2 REZs, just maybe Arkansawyer has the best solution, mentioned elsewhere also. Rate Plan Setups.
John is working on some work-arounds with this in mind- and we're not even on board yet! What a guy!! Wouldn't surprise me if there's an announced tax accounting "upgrade" in the near future (no pressure, John....)
Assuming we get this worked out, then it'll be the implementation of a follow-up and marketing aspect.
Gosh...what a fun Forum.....can't wait to talk about stupid dandelion and weed control...kitchen mishaps...and the occasional loud frisky guests....
 
First, thanks to Gillumhouse for the "perspective"
regular_smile.gif
. We do probably 300 room nights under Tax Exempt. These represent maybe 100-150 reservations (multi-night stays). Indeed, for the cost differential between the 2 REZs, just maybe Arkansawyer has the best solution, mentioned elsewhere also. Rate Plan Setups.
John is working on some work-arounds with this in mind- and we're not even on board yet! What a guy!! Wouldn't surprise me if there's an announced tax accounting "upgrade" in the near future (no pressure, John....)
Assuming we get this worked out, then it'll be the implementation of a follow-up and marketing aspect.
Gosh...what a fun Forum.....can't wait to talk about stupid dandelion and weed control...kitchen mishaps...and the occasional loud frisky guests.....
hearthstoneinn said:
Gosh...what a fun Forum.....can't wait to talk about stupid dandelion and weed control...kitchen mishaps...and the occasional loud frisky guests....
Go natural for the dandelions and weeds. Or, find some bored little kids! Loud guests? If there is a reason to say so, look around and say, 'And a good time was had by all!' Kitchen mishaps? Try working in my completely open kitchen where I can't even whisper 'oops' without all the guests hearing it!
Enjoy!
 
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