Providence, R.I. -- The Rhode Island Department of Revenue today released its FY 2016 Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report for February 2016. The Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report, which is issued on a monthly basis, compares the collections from the state's local 1.0 percent hotel tax on a month-to-month, year-over-year, and fiscal year-to-date over fiscal year-to-date basis. The local 1.0 percent hotel tax is collected on the rental of rooms in the state and remitted, in full, to the municipality in which the room rental was located. Highlights from the report as noted by Director of Revenue Robert S. Hull were • Month-to-month increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections was over 12. percent, a sharp difference from the negative rate of growth recorded between February 2015 and January 2015; • Year-over-year increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections for February 2016 was strong at 11.3 percent but comparable to the 11.5 percent year-over-year increase posted in February 2015; • Year-to-date FY 2016 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections through February rose to 11.0 percent over the same period last fiscal year and 300 basis points higher than for the year-to-date over year-to-date growth rate recorded for FY 2015 through February.
The entire report can be found on the Department of Revenue's web site at http://www.dor.ri.gov/revenue-analysis/2016.php under the Local Reports tab. The full report includes the break down by municipality of local hotel tax collections on a month-to-month, year-over-year, and fiscal year-to-date over fiscal year-to-date basis.
Questions or comments on the report should be directed to Paul Grimaldi, Chief of Information and Public Relations by e-mail at paul.grimaldi@revenue.ri.gov or by phone at (401) 574-8766.
Expansion of the Local Hotel Tax Base to Vacation Rentals and Hosting Platforms: The February 2016 report may include FY 2016 local 1.0 percent hotel tax receipts generated from the expansion of the local hotel tax base to include the reselling of lodging by online travel companies, the unlicensed rental of accommodations via internet platforms and other media, and vacation home rentals. At this time, the Office of Revenue Analysis is unable to determine the amount collected from each of these local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansions and thus an unknown amount of receipts from these expansions may be included in this report.
Correction in Hotel Tax Collection Data for City of Newport: It should be noted that the Office of Revenue Analysis (ORA) made an error in the interpretation of the local 1.0 percent hotel tax revenues data provided by the City of Newport on hotel taxes paid by hotels located in Newport. Specifically, ORA used data reported by the City for a specific month as reflecting that month's hotel room rental activity when in fact that data reflected the prior month's hotel room rental activity. Beginning with the December 2015 Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report this error has been corrected. The previously issued Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Reports for July through November 2015 will also be corrected and republished as soon as feasibly possible.