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The City of Bonavista has taken a new approach to dealing with airbnb hosts who represent unfair competition for hotels and bread-and-breakfast ins because they don't pay business taxes. They cut your sewer and water lines.
Bonavista cuts off services for Airbnb operators with unpaid business tax bills.
"We have gone to some pretty serious measures to collect. We have literally dug up driveways and turned off water (and) sewer service until the bill is paid, cutting them off completely from all municipal services.
-- Mayor John Norman
If people can't even drive their car onto your property, take a shower, use the toilet, you're pretty motivated to pony up.
The mayor said the taxation method has been successful, but he acknowledges not all Airbnb owners are pleased.
"I don't think some are happy about it, but it is what it is."
This is a pretty effective fix to unfair competition by airbnb hosts. The next question is, how can we apply the same thinking to uber and lyft?
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Wednesday September 11 2019, @11:43AM (10 children)
"Our own formula" is just making up shit at this point. I bet that's not the law. Plus, is renting out a room a business or not? I bet it's not.
Sounds pretty ridiculous to me. Shaking down people just because they have Airbnb entries and there's enough money there for a full time staff member to get involved.
Second, as the poster noted, even when things are legal, bad law can hurt people. While it's good that you at least recognize that bad law should be changed, this often is done by breaking it. This story is very soft on what sort of property taxes are allegedly being evaded. But given the "unfair" talk, it sounds like they're high enough that businesses shouldn't be paying them either.
Note how bad law works here. Because the business rate is higher than the residential rate, the city has yet another excuse to monitor everyone, cut essential services, and in general be assholes just because the tax differential exists. As the earlier poster noted, that does harm and kill people even if we can't see it.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 11 2019, @01:37PM (5 children)
The law is being applied to illegal Airbnb operators who don't pay their taxes. How is using Airbnb listings to find illegal operators any different from looking on Kijiji or Amazon to catch illegal counterfeit knockoffs?
First rule of breaking the law - don't do it in public, because you're more likely to get caught.
Second rule of breaking the law - the consequences are that all the income taxes you dodged at the provincial/state/territorial and federal law are probably going to have to be paid.
Don't want to pay taxes, move to Somalia. They won't cut off your water or sewer because they don't have either.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @02:47PM (1 child)
Northern Somalia is actually quite nice. My nephew and his father recently visited, and had a great time.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwi3o76BgMnkAhUGJzQIHVWvCRIQFjALegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw1XzfsR-DGUJBrrvrmU584n [google.com]
As for southern Somalia, if it wasn't for western Europe, Russia, and the US stealing all the fish from their territorial waters, then dumping their trash in said waters (including, from Russia, nuclear waste), the fisherfolk of Somalia would still be able to make a living fishing. Without fishing being viable, and with mariner skills, piracy became an attractive option.
Yes, of course, I get the point you were trying to make, but your example isn't really true for all of Somalia, and for the parts it is, there is a pretty terrible back-story of abuse by rich nations that forced the situation.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Thursday September 12 2019, @08:50AM
Maybe if they had a bigger tax base they'd be able to patrol their territorial waters.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 12 2019, @10:28AM (2 children)
There's no regulation outlawing Airbnb operators in this town. You're not even on the right page. Let me reiteration my objections given your present objections: 1) Airbnb operation is legal, 2) renting to others is not in itself a business, thus 3) being an Airbnb operator is not in itself a business. Hence, 4) no actual tax evasion has been demonstrated, it's an interpretation of the law by this town's government. A large part of the problem here is 5) that the town is taxing businesses more than residences. If 6) they didn't do that, they'd still have the tax base and 7) no reason to meddle in the affairs of Airbnb operators, creating barriers to providing temporary housing for people who need it.
You do realize that Somalia is better off now than when they had a unified national level government?
I find it interesting how this is all interpreted as paying taxes for civilization rather than the local nazis in power jerking peoples' chains in order to protect some local business cartels. Needless to say, I don't share that interpretation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by barbara hudson on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:28PM (1 child)
Being an Airbnb host is a business in Canada. Renting a spare bedroom to someone long term isn't, unless it's to more than two people or more than two rooms, in which case it's also classified as a business.
You can have fo people rent and share a house, but all 4 names have to be on the lease. If only one is, the other three are considered as rental income to the person or persons on the lease.
That's the law here, don't like it, don't ask for the benefits of it, like running water, working sewers, and a level playing field for business competitors.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Friday September 13 2019, @02:56AM
What necessary permits? No necessary permits makes that statement just as true.
No, if you read the story, you'll find it's alleged nonpayment of taxes.
Unless, it's not, of course. I don't buy your assertion here.
This is why.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @06:58PM (3 children)
I recognize no such thing. In fact, I explicitly said:
Don't put words in my mouth khallow.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 11 2019, @10:33PM (2 children)
[...]
So perhaps ou're saying bad law shouldn't be changed? I'm curious what was different about the words that I "put in your mouth" than what you actually said.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:33PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 13 2019, @03:20AM
And you keep asserting without evidence such things. As you admitted [soylentnews.org], long term rental is not a business even though it charges money and isn't a charity. What makes informal short term rental any different? Why does the time frame matter? The logic just isn't there to support your arguments.
Note that the AC poster has disavowed nothing. Sure, there's the disavowal, but it doesn't actually disavow anything. My view is that any words that I "put" in the AC's mouth were the words of the AC poster. If they don't like that, then maybe they should have said something different instead. It's not a straw man, if you actually said it.
A poster's inability to argue rationally is not my troll. You can't even show basic premises like that Airbnb participation is automatically a business despite repeated assertion. How can we define a business that excludes renting a spare bedroom long term, but not renting a spare bedroom short term? How about if the landlord is using Airbnb to manage their long term rental of the spare bedroom. Does that become a business then?