Montrose, CO — Montrose City Councilors gave final approval to a pair of revisions to the city's Municipal Code to clarify language related to short-term rentals and to bring those operating lodging establishments, like AirBnBs and VRBOs without sales tax licenses, into compliance.
The council voted unanimously at their regular meeting Tuesday evening to add a new definition of short-term rentals to the zoning code and to notify short-term rental owners of the city’s requirement for them to obtain a sales tax license.
Before these revisions, the city's code pre-dated the proliferation of short-term rental offerings available on the internet.
"The current effort suggests modifications to the code that would recognize the zoning use, better capture sales tax collections for short-term rentals, level the playing field with traditional lodging providers, and provide a tracking method of the short-term rentals in Montrose, via sales tax licenses," Senior Planner Garry Baker said in a memo to the council.
Baker said the city has not received many complaints from neighborhoods regarding these lodging establishments and notes the number of short-term rental properties in Montrose is smaller than in some nearby communities.
"Our main goal is to emphasize that short-term rentals are subject to a sales tax license, just like any other lodging business," Baker said.
Moving forward, the updated language will describe a short-term rental as "a type of lodging wherein a dwelling unit, either in full or in part, is rented to a temporary occupant(s) for monetary consideration for fewer than thirty (30) consecutive days. A bed and breakfast is, for purposes of this definition, a type of short-term rental. Likewise, a home used similar to a rooming/boarding or lodging house, but where stays are fewer than 30 consecutive days is also a short-term rental. Short-term rental does not include shelters or other transient lodgings as may be defined elsewhere in the Municipal Code."
For more information about obtaining a sales tax license visit CityOfMontrose.org/SalesTax or stop by in person at 433 S. First Street in downtown Montrose.
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