Providence, R.I. -- The Rhode Island Department of Revenue today released its FY 2018 Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report for January 2018. 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.
Expansion of the Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Base The January 2018 report includes the local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections generated by the rental of lodging via hosting platforms and by on-line travel companies (room resellers) and vacation home rentals by homeowners and realtors for all municipalities, other than the City of Newport, for the period of July 2016 through January 2017 and July 2017 through January 2018. The local 1.0 percent hotel tax revenues from these sources for the October 2016 through January 2017 period are included in the January 2017 amounts. Thus, collections for the month of January 2017 are likely overstated.
For the City of Newport, local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections from these rentals covers July 2017 through January 2018 and October through December 2016 but not July through September 2016.
Highlights from the report as noted by Director of Revenue Mark A. Furcolo were • Local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections were up between January 2018 and December 2017, at a rate of 7.5 percent, a substantive improvement from the same period last fiscal year when the increase was 2.1 percent; o January 2018 cash collections include $50,184 in receipts attributable to the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $26,742 accounted for in December 2017; • Year-over-year local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections rose for January 2018, rose sharply at a 22.4 percent rate, seven percentage points more than the percent growth rate recorded in January 2017. o Year-over-year FY 2018 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections include $50,184 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $37,651 recorded in January 2017; • Fiscal year-to-date over fiscal year-to-date increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections for January 2018 were a very strong 18.3 percent, a 6.5 percentage point increase from the fiscal year-to-date-over-fiscal year-to-date growth rate posted in January 2017; o Year-to-date FY 2018 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections through January incorporate $602,155 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $280,034 recorded in FY 2017 through Janary.
The entire report can be found on the Department of Revenue's web site at http://www.dor.ri.gov/revenue-analysis/2018.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.