Vacation home renter released from paying special taxes

VISALIA — To clear up some misconceptions had by a few vacation rental owners in Three Rivers, Tulare County is reassessing to whom it charges hotel stay-related taxes.

The taxes, called transient occupancy taxes, are collected from owners of inns, mobile homes and other hotel type-businesses for 10 percent of their quarterly revenue.

The decision to revaluate the tax code followed an appeal to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors by Geoffrey and Diana Glass to remit the $6,928.05 the county’s tax collectors office said the Glasses owed for renting out a vacation home along the main fork of the Kaweah River.

On Tuesday, the supervisors unanimously voted to uphold the appeal, saying the law’s stipulations, particularly in regards to how many times a year a unit is rented, need to be clarified.  

In order to be charged these taxes, the facilities must be operated by a “person who is not regularly engaged in the business of renting such facilities and does so only occasionally and incidentally to his or her own use.”

The law does not define “occasionally” and “incidentally,” leaving their interpretations open ended. These are the terms that supervisors say need to be defined “so there’s no guess work,” Supervisor, Dist. 4, Steve Worthley said.

The Glasses are among a few Three Rivers property owners who said they rent out a room or two in their homes and should not be subject to such fees.

They were reportedly told from the get-go that they were not responsible for paying such taxes, but were later billed for thousands of dollars in unpaid transient occupancy taxes.

The Glasses have been renting out the second floor of their residence, with a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, since 2006.

The unit, which is advertised on the Web and is nicknamed “Crystal Cove,” was rented for about 35 days in 2006, increasing to more than 100 days in 2009.

The tax collector and Supervisor, Dist. 3, Phillip Cox, disagreed with the Glasses for how they constituted renting their unit for one-third of the year as “occasionally.”

Charging transient occupancy taxes is a common practice up and down the state.

The tax collectors office will research how other counties word their ordinances, according to Deputy Tax Collector Hiley Wallis

“We’ll get started right on it, but it will be next year before the ordinance ever gets changed,” she said.

-- Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.