Providence, R.I. -- The Rhode Island Department of Revenue today released its FY 2016 Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report for April 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.
The April 2016 report includes the local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections generated by the rental of lodging via hosting platforms and by online travel companies (room resellers) and vacation home rentals by homeowners and realtors. The local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections from these rentals covers the period of July 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015 inclusive for all municipalities other than the City of Newport. For the City of Newport, local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections from these rentals covers the period of July 1, 2015 through April 30, 2016 inclusive.
Highlights from the report as noted by Director of Revenue Robert S. Hull are: • Month-to-month increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections was 6.8 percent, well below the 21.0 percent increase recorded in the same period in FY 2015; o April 2016 cash collections include $9,305 in receipts attributable to the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $7,976 in March 2016; • Year-over-year increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections for April 2016 was modest at 5.9 percent and significantly below the 21.4 percent year-over-year increase posted in April 2015 in spite of an additional $9,305 in receipts received in April 2016 from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion; • Year-to-date FY 2016 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections through April rose to 13.8 percent over the same period last fiscal year and 5.1 percentage points higher than for the year-to-date over year-to-date growth rate recorded for FY 2015 through April; o Year-to-date FY 2016 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections through April incorporate $83,134 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion.
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.
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.
Also, the March 2016 report inadvertently allocated local 1.0 percent hotel tax revenues to the state 5.0 percent hotel tax. The figures shown in the report corrects for this misallocation.