Room tax question?

[ukcatfan]

Tourism is FL's #1 business. The government just wants a piece of that pie, so hotel taxes are higher.

It has nothing to do with Florida. This exists everywhere in the US as far as I know. I used to work for a hotel in KY and there the occupancy tax is actually sales taxable. That way you could not just add the two taxes together to get a total rate b/c it actually ends up being more than that. According to the controller of the hotel I worked for, the legal theory behind the tax is that you are "living" in that county while you are there, but not paying any property tax, so they charge this to you. Also, as far as I know, it is always paid to the county, where most if not all sales tax goes to the state. It does not seem right to charge it, but it is not going to go away.

Kevin

 

[dddisrunner]

I have cousins that live in Matawan and Toms River!

Definitely a small world!

DDDISRUNNER and SeaSpray,

I grew up in Matawan, have lived in Old Bridge for the past 28 years, about 3 miles from where I grew up!

I currently work in Spring Lake, but worked in Toms River (on route 37, near Mule Road) for a few years in the early 1990's.

I have alot of friends in Toms River. It is such a small world!

Pat

I feel bad that you worked near Mule Rd. that intersection is a total nightmare and I avoid that part of town like the plague!

I LOVE Toms River I used to live there until I moved to MA 10 years ago. I still have family there and I was just there last weekend! Gotta love the Jersey Shore!

So nice to hear someone loves Toms River You know how the joke goes, cancer town, etc. etc.! We love it here too! Hate how expensive property taxes are but that is the whole state not just Toms River!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The basic Sales Tax rate in Florida is 6.0% and is on most goods and services. The counties have an option, by vote of their residents, to add a surtax of 0.25%, 0.5%, 1.0% or 1.5% to the state rate.

Orange County, which is most of WDW has a surtax of 0.5%, so purchases (including meals) are taxed at 6.5%.

Osceola County, which has the All-Stars Resorts and Wide World of Sports in it, has a 1.0% surtax so purchases at those locations are subject to a 7.0% tax.

In addition, counties are allowed to have a tax on transient lodging. In both Orange and Osceola Counties it is 6.0%, so all lodging except the All Stars is 12.5% while the All Stars, in Osceola County, is 13.0%.

Mike (CPA Retired)

 

[SeaSpray]

Definitely a small world!





I feel bad that you worked near Mule Rd. that intersection is a total nightmare and I avoid that part of town like the plague!

I LOVE Toms River I used to live there until I moved to MA 10 years ago. I still have family there and I was just there last weekend! Gotta love the Jersey Shore!

So nice to hear someone loves Toms River You know how the joke goes, cancer town, etc. etc.! We love it here too! Hate how expensive property taxes are but that is the whole state not just Toms River!

I was living there, and my DSs were very little, when the cancer scare broke out and they believed it was something in the water supply. I breathed a huge sigh though because at that point I'd had a water cooler with bottled spring water delivery for years, so my family and I had not been drinking the water. I still have a water cooler in my kitchen and get spring water delivered

By the way, whatever happened with that? Did they determine that Ciba had polluted the water?? Or was it a scare that turned out not to be caused by water or the environment??

 

[CleveRocks]

As someone who lives in a resort community, I am whole-heartedly in favor of a room tax or transient occupancy tax or whatever it's called wherever it's levied.

Resort areas have to have more police, fire, etc. than other non-tourist areas of a similar size. Because there are so many more restaurants and such, there have to be more health inspectors employed, and that costs money, too. And so on and so on, whether it's trash collection, frequency of road repair, you name it, our city government has to pay a lot more to keep everything going than a similarly sized town that doesn't have its population swell from 10,000 most of the year to over 100,000 in the summer months.

I'm not involved in any tourism work or have a business that benefits from tourists. I'm happy to have the tourists share in the expenses.

 

[DisneyFans4]

By the way, whatever happened with that? Did they determine that Ciba had polluted the water?? Or was it a scare that turned out not to be caused by water or the environment??

In 2002 there was a cash settlement with approx. 69 families but others wouldn't take the settlement and still have a class action pending. The settlement was between Union Carbide, Ciby-Geigy and Toms River Water Co.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Maybe I should retitle this thread "Jersey Homecoming?"

Just a reminder to keep it on topic please. Thank you!

Knox

 

[SeaSpray]

In 2002 there was a cash settlement with approx. 69 families but others wouldn't take the settlement and still have a class action pending. The settlement was between Union Carbide, Ciby-Geigy and Toms River Water Co.

Oh ok, thanks!

Maybe I should retitle this thread "Jersey Homecoming?"

Just a reminder to keep it on topic please. Thank you!

Knox

 

[DisneyFans4]

Maybe I should retitle this thread "Jersey Homecoming?"

Just a reminder to keep it on topic please. Thank you!

Knox

Sorry but it was a coincidence that we happened to find each other. That's the beauty of these boards