Tax Collector’s Office and Visit Sarasota County collaborate on list of damaged properties
On Feb. 13, while providing a report to the Sarasota County Tourist Development Council about the Fiscal Year 2024 Tourist Development Tax — or “bed tax” — collections, Sherri Smith, the county’s chief deputy tax collector, took time to discuss the ongoing downturn so far in this fiscal year.
The total revenue for the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year — which began on Oct. 1, 2024 — was down about $1.3 million, compared to the first quarter tally for the 2024 fiscal year, Smith said.
In explaining that detail, she pointed out, “The unwelcomed visits of Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused much damage and devastation in our area. Many of our residents are still dealing with cleaning and rebuilding.”
With the assistance of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism marketing office, she continued, the Tax Collector’s Office staff “compiled a list of hotels not open or only partially open,” plus a list of other accommodations, such as condominiums, homes and apartments, that have been damaged and are unable to welcome visitors, Smith added. “The list is truly heartbreaking. Some [of the owners] are not sure if or when they will be able to fully reopen.”
Because of the damage, Smith explained, refunds had to be made to people who had planned visits to the county.
“As our community continues to rebuild,” Smith added, “we trust that we will come back better and stronger.”
Noting a number of popular events coming up, including the Sarasota Film Festival and major rowing events planned at Nathan Benderson Park, Smith told the Council members that the county does remain a very desirable destination for visitors.
As for the 2024 fiscal year in general, Smith pointed out that, collections as of Feb. 13 totaled $49,374,443.78, which was down 3.24%, compared to the Fiscal Year 2023 amount of nearly $50.5 million. (Smith and former Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates often have explained that audits and other enforcement action can produce changes in the collection figures from month-to-month, even after a fiscal year has ended.)
Some months in FY 2024 did end up with higher amounts than the same months in FY 2023, Smith continued. For example, she said, March marked the highest figure ever for a single month: $7.88 million. February saw a total of almost $6.03 million, she continued, while January’s figure was nearly $5.61 million.
By the end of December 2024, Smith told the Council, the number of Tourist Development Tax accounts in the county was 7,477, which was down 2.82%, compared to the figure for 2023.
“For the seventh year in a row,” she noted, “hotels/motels surpassed condos in revenue collection,” having generated 38.64% of the funds. Condos were in second place, she said, with 30.71%. However, Smith pointed out, condos comprised 70.9% of the accommodations that collect the Tourist Development Tax. The 6% tax is charged on rentals that last no longer than six months.
Thus, she said, condos and hotels/motels combined brought in 69.35% of the total revenue in FY 2024.
A chart in the formal, printed report released by Tax Collector Michael Moran and his staff showed that the total amount of revenue derived from hotels and motels was $18,692,834 in FY 2024, compared to $14,854,040 for condos. In fact the chart noted, the figure for condos was up 1.12% from their revenue tally for FY 2023. Conversely, the total for hotels and motels was down 10.43%, compared to the FY 2023 figure.
Smith also told the Council that rentals of accommodations through online platforms — such as Airbnb — accounted for $10,804,634 in the 2024 fiscal year. That was up 2.71%, compared to the tally for FY 2023.
She added that a county agreement with Airbnb went into effect in the spring of 2017, with collections starting in May of that year.
For that first fiscal year, Smith continued, the Airbnb hosts’ contribution to the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) revenue was $310,000. The figure climbed to $1.1 million for FY 2018 and on up to $3.9 million in FY 2021. For FY 2024, the total was $7,287,755.56, she said.
Collections from hosts who work through HomeAway and TripAdvisor — and all of their subsidiaries, including Vrbo.com — began in April 2019 under a separate agreement, Smith continued. However, that document does not give the Tax Collector’s Office permission to provide individual totals for each company, she added.
On a related note, Smith told the Council, “Traditionally, the City of Sarasota and Siesta Key generate the highest portion of the collections, and this held true in Fiscal Year 2024.”
The total FY 2024 figures at the end of December 2024 showed that Siesta Key had pulled into the lead, she continued, accounting for 26.86% of the total; the city’s share was 24.72%.
Illegal rentals
Council member Michael Holderness — part owner of the Siesta Key Beach Resort and Suites in Siesta Village and manager of multiple rental properties — did raise the issue of illegal rentals to tourists, in an exchange with Smith during her time at the podium.
If the county required that every owner of a property zoned for residential single-family use had to register before renting the dwelling as an accommodation, he said, it would be much easier to track illegal rentals.
In neighborhoods with residential single-family zoning, the county short-term rental ordinance forbids the renting of property more than once a month. However — as Siesta residents have attested to over the years — such illegal rentals occur all the time.
“Thank you for that,” Smith replied. “I think you could be right.” Some areas of the county do require such registration, she said, including the City of Sarasota.
She also noted that the Tax Collector’s Office website features a tipline for members of the public to use to identify properties they believe to be rented illegally to visitors. People can leave information anonymously on that tipline, Smith added.
The staff always researches such situations, she stressed.
The document that Smith provided the Council members also noted that persons may call the office without giving their names, if they have tips about properties. That number is 941-861-8393.
“We also work very closely with Code Enforcement in all the areas,” she said, as county and city code enforcement officers are the ones who handle complaints about illegal rentals in local government jurisdictions.
Delinquent accounts
Turning to another Tourist Development Tax topic, Smith said, “The number of delinquent accounts has remained consistently low for the last several years.”
Each month, she pointed out, “Our friendly yet very persistent team” checks on every account that has not filed a payment. “Most delinquent accounts are resolved within 30 days,” Smith said.
The primary contact is via phone or email, she continued. “When that doesn’t work,” she added, a letter is mailed, “warning the property owner that a beautiful sign may need to be posted.”
She held up a copy of the bright yellow sign. “I can tell you,” Smith continued, “that the thought of putting this on a short-term rental gets those payments coming very quickly.”
As a last resort when a property owner refuses to pay, she said, the office files a warrant. No such action was necessary for the last fiscal year, she pointed out.
However, Smith said, the office continues to contend with three outstanding warrants. Two of those are for management companies that no longer do business in Sarasota County, she noted; the total for them is less than $4,000.
A shift to online payments
Noting that she had “some very exciting news,” Smith told the Council that, in August 2024, the Tax Collector’s Office implemented a new online payment process for bed tax account holders. Since then, she said, 1,225 payments representing more than $2.6 million had been paid to the office through that system.
Further, Smith continued, the staff can send email reminders to accounts whose payments have not been received in a timely manner.
“It’s certainly more convenient for the homeowner to pay,” she added of the system.
Not only does that eliminate the risk of those payments being lost in the mail, Smith pointed out, but “it has shown increased savings in envelopes, paper and postage and, most important, staff time.”
As in the past, Smith also took an opportunity to recognize the members of the Tax Collector’s Office staff who deal with the Tourist Development Tax revenue, calling them “our rock star team”: Angela Nicoloso, the director of processing and tax services; Lisa Ferris; Rita Kennedy; and Kenni Gregg.