Rental Property Investor · Massillon, OH · Member since 2017 · 215 posts · 168 votes
Akron, Ohio passes a Short Term Rental Registration: $250 annual fee and 5.5% tax, starting in January 2023. The ABJ article announcing it here.
Ohio House bill prompts Akron to draft its own ordinance
City Council decided the legislation was necessary after the Ohio House of Representative introduced a bill in February to prevent municipalities from prohibiting short-term rentals and regulating the number, duration, or frequency of rental periods. The bill has yet to go before the full House for a vote. City officials, however, do not believe any language in that legislation, House Bill 563, would put their ordinance at risk of conflicting with state legislation.
"We were careful to craft our ordinance to remain in line with currently proposed state law, but if there's a conflict in a state law or a preemptive law, we'll certainly revisit our law," said Emily Collins, strategic advisor to Mayor Dan Horrigan and co-author of the Akron ordinance.
They are referring to the bill OREIA has been supporting to prevent any future limitations on STRs in the state.
Here's the complete ordinance:
https://onlinedocs.akronohio.g... & on the left side under 'Select Search Type' pull down menu select 'Passed Legislation' and under 'Ordinance Number' search for *291-2022*
Property Manager · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2015 · 699 posts · 799 votes
3y
Good, love it.
If I’m reading this right the 5.5% tax is the Summit County rate and they share it with Akron. In Cleveland the county rate is 6.5% and Cleveland charges another 3%.
Thanks Dave, not sure what I messed up. I appreciate what you all are saying, but I don't like having to pay another registration fee to Akron for no benefit (16x more than the LTR fee), have to post a silly placard somewhere, plus have to pay a tax on the revenue. We had a bill that never was voted on in the Ohio House, hopefully we can get it reintroduced in the next session.
Maurice Thompson is currently reviewing this new law to see if there's anything we can do about it. If you're interested in learning more about the work he does to defend property owners' rights in Ohio go here: https://ohioconstitution.org/
Or to get involved with OREIA to fight this you can join a local OREIA affiliate - we have a strong presence in Columbus!
I know this is an old thread but has anyone been filing/paying STR excise taxes in Summit County / Akron? I was recently told by Summit County that they currently do NOT assess the tax on STRs and only on hotels (which seems to not agree to the County ordinance). I was told by Akron that they charge a 3% tax and outsource the filing to an online platform called Granicus. I have made a couple inquiries to Granicus on how to get started with no reply back. There are some other online platforms used for munis in Ohio that seem to be easier to set up and more user friendly.
I know this is an old thread but has anyone been filing/paying STR excise taxes in Summit County / Akron? I was recently told by Summit County that they currently do NOT assess the tax on STRs and only on hotels (which seems to not agree to the County ordinance). I was told by Akron that they charge a 3% tax and outsource the filing to an online platform called Granicus. I have made a couple inquiries to Granicus on how to get started with no reply back. There are some other online platforms used for munis in Ohio that seem to be easier to set up and more user friendly.
Akron is just now starting to get an online portal up and running, and you'll also be required to have a yearly license/permit to have a STR. The city had identified all the STR within limits and planned to make contact with homeowners in November. If you did not receive a letter, etc., you may not be within their limits. But definitely call the city and check! I spoke with them 2 months ago and received all the above info.
Rental Property Investor · Massillon, OH · Member since 2017 · 215 posts · 168 votes
2y
From Duane at Akron's Housing Division earlier this week:
They are still at least a month away from putting anything in action, probably longer as he didn't sound real optimistic. There's a number of tasks their vendor has yet to do before they kick anything off. There is still nothing on the City's website about it yet. No decisions have been made about taxes for 2023.
When it is ready to go, any property in the city listed on the main OTA platforms will be notified that the program is active - by the respective OTA through the email associated with the account. We will not be contacted directly by the city - at least at first. Final policies are all TBD.
In the meantime, we still have to register our STRs according to the city's rental registry requirements. Even in the future after the program is up and running, he suspects we will still have to register the STRs with both registries.
In summary, there's still nothing for us to do until we are notified by the OTAs. With a new mayor and administration getting settled in, I would suspect not much will be happening soon. That said, all this could be subject to change.