The Tax Collector and the Department of Revenue

Two separate hands, both out, and confusing them is how owners end up with an assessment letter.

The state

You register once for a sales tax certificate, then file on the state’s portal for every period. The county’s discretionary surtax rides along on that same return, which is why people forget it exists separately.

The DOR is also the agency with lien and levy authority, and the one that issues the Notice of Final Assessment.

The county

Different agency. Different registration. Different portal. Different return. Different penalties. Nothing about your state filing touches it, and the county has no visibility into whether you filed with the state.

Got it? Here is why that split matters so much.

The gap platforms fall into

Platform collection agreements are negotiated per county. Airbnb may remit your county’s tourist tax; VRBO may not; Booking.com may be different again. And the arrangement can change between January and July.

The two calls

• The Department of Revenue, to register for sales tax before your first booking.
• Your county tax collector, to open a tourist tax account — and to ask which platforms they have active collection agreements with. Ask again every January, because the answer moves.