BRENHAM, WASHINGTON CO. OFFICIALS CONSIDERING NEW HOTEL OCCUPANCY TAX MANAGEMENT PLATFORM
Government officials in Brenham and Washington County are looking into a platform to better manage local Hotel Occupancy Taxes (HOT).
At a workshop Tuesday, officials met to discuss LODGINGRevs, a platform that would administrate and streamline compliance and collections of HOT revenue. The software would maintain a database of the roughly 200 short-term rentals in the county, determine their compliance and permit status, and make sure they are actively making HOT payments.
County Commissioner Candice Bullock said the software would allow both the City of Brenham and Washington County better oversight and compliance on HOT revenue, because of the platform’s access to over 30 relevant short-term rental listing sites. She said short-term rentals often do not realize they are not making local HOT payments because they have already paid the state Hotel Occupancy Tax, unaware there is also a local tax.
The state’s HOT rate is 6 percent, while the HOT rate is 7 percent for both the city and the county. The city only collects within city limits and the county only collects outside of city limits, so short-term rentals pay a total of 13 percent whether they are located inside or outside the city.
Both the city and the county are considering entering into a joint contract to utilize the software, which is also used by cities including Amarillo, Corpus Christi, League City, Lago Vista, Nassau Bay, and Waco. The contract would initially carry a one-year term to be renewed annually.
If the contract is approved, both the city and the county would pay a one-time platform implementation cost of $8,800. However, by partnering, the two would save on annual contract costs; together, the two would each pay $6,000 annually, as opposed to $10,000 if they pursued the contract individually.
County commissioners intend to bring the contract forward for consideration at their meeting Tuesday, while the Brenham City Council will potentially review the contract at its meeting Thursday, November 5th.
Click here to watch a video further explaining the LODGINGRevs platform.