State seeks 10 years of Airbnb records to find out if rental operators are paying state taxes

The state Department of Taxation wants to subpoena Airbnb Inc. records for the past 10 years to determine whether transient vacation rental operators in Hawaii have been paying their state taxes.

Attorney General Russell Suzuki last week filed a request for Circuit Court authorization to subpoena the tax records from the vacation rental platform “as part of its investigation into compliance with general excise and transient accommodations tax laws,” according to the petition.

The administrative subpoena would demand “all invoices, receipts, statements and confirmations” of bookings and payments as well as the names, tax identification numbers and Social Security numbers of the hosts, according to the filing.

The subpoena would also seek the location of the rentals, the dates and length of stay by each guest, and the amounts paid for the rentals. State law requires tax investigators to seek court authority to issue such a subpoena if the demand does not specifically identify the person who is the target of the investigation.

Read more: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/09/08/business/state-seeks-10-years-of-airbnb-rental-records/?HSA=3af5f7c1496651570b8cf036f52101294ec0aff9