Overview
By default, taxes that Airbnb collects and remits on behalf of the property manager are excluded from financials because they do not represent cash received into the trust account. In most cases this is the correct treatment.
Some property managers, however, want to report the Airbnb taxes collected to their owners so that owners can see the full tax picture on their statements. This article explains how to surface Airbnb taxes collected & remitted on the owner statement without changing the net income due to the owner.
The end result of this configuration is that Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted are displayed on the owner statement for informational purposes only, but have no effect on the net amount owed to the owner. This is achieved by pairing an informational revenue line with an equal, owner-hidden offset line.
When to use this setup
Use this setup when all of the following are true:
Airbnb (not you) collects and remits the occupancy/lodging taxes on the reservation.
Those taxes are currently mapped as Excluded because they are not deposited into your trust account.
You still want the owner to see the taxes Airbnb collected and remitted on their statement, for informational purposes only.
If you actually collect taxes into your trust account and remit them yourself (or pass them through to owners as real revenue), use the Accounting for various tax scenarios (VRTrust) article instead.
Step 1: Create the reference account
In your Chart of Accounts, create a reference account:
Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted (Reference)
This reference account is used later to drive the calculation of the fee. It captures the Airbnb tax amounts so they can be picked up by the fee template.
Step 2: Create the revenue and offset accounts
Still in your Chart of Accounts, create two accounts:
Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted Revenue — the informational revenue account that will appear on the owner statement.
Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted Revenue - Offset — the offset account that cancels out the informational revenue so the owner payout is unaffected.
Step 3: Update the Airbnb taxes mapping
Navigate to Settings > Reservations and change the mapping for the Airbnb tax line type(s) from Excluded to the new Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted (Reference) account created in Step 1.
Mapping to the reference account (rather than a liability or revenue account) means the Airbnb taxes are captured for reporting but do not post as cash or a real liability in your financials.
Step 4: Create the "Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted" fee
In Fees and Commissions, create a new fee named Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted set to a 100% fee.
Under the fee's Advanced settings, configure the following:
Revenue account: Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted Revenue
Expense account: Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted Revenue - Offset
Party for both revenue and expense: Owner
Account included in the calculation of the fee: Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted (Reference)
Because the fee is 100% of the reference account balance and books an equal and opposite revenue and offset (expense) to the owner, the net effect on the owner ledger is zero. The revenue line shows the taxes; the offset line removes them from the payout.
Finally, apply the fee to the appropriate listings.
Step 5: Configure the owner statement template
In the owner statement template editor, add two new columns to the Net Revenue section:
INFO ONLY: Airbnb Taxes Collected — map the Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted Revenue account to this column. This is the informational line the owner will see.
Airbnb Taxes Collected - Offset — map the Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted Revenue - Offset account to this column, and hide the column from the owner.
Hiding the offset column from the owner keeps the statement clean: the owner sees the informational "Airbnb Taxes Collected" amount, while the offsetting column works behind the scenes to keep net income unchanged.
Result
With this configuration in place, Airbnb Taxes Collected & Remitted are displayed on the owner statement (via the informational column), but have no effect on the net income due to the owner (because the hidden offset column cancels the informational revenue).