Providence, R.I. -- The Rhode Island Department of Revenue today released its FY 2018 Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report for March 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 March 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 March 2017 and July 2017 through March 2018. The February 2017 local hotel tax collections from these rentals were recorded in March 2017 along with the March 2017 local hotel tax collections from these sources. As a result, March 2017 local hotel tax collections are overstated.
For the City of Newport, local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections from these rentals covers July 2017 through March 2018 and October 2016 through March 2017 but not July through September 2016. Newport's March 2017 local hotel tax collections from hosting platforms and room resellers and homeowners and realtors are only for the month of March.
Highlights from the report as noted by Director of Revenue Mark A. Furcolo were • Local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections were up between March 2018 and February 2018, at a rate of 17.7 percent, well below the same period last fiscal year when the increase was 57.6 percent, when two months of local hotel tax collections from the expansion of the local hotel tax base were included in March 2017; o March 2018 cash collections include $37,969 in receipts attributable to the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $38,784 accounted for in February 2018; • Year-over-year local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections rose for March 2018, declined 9.5 percent rate, sharply below the 26.5 percent growth rate recorded in March 2017. o Year-over-year FY 2018 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections include $37,969 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $93,336 recorded in March 2017 when two months' worth of these revenues were recorded; • Fiscal year-to-date over fiscal year-to-date increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections for March 2018 were a vigorous 16.1 percent, a 3.2 percentage point increase from the fiscal year-to-date-over-fiscal year-to-date growth rate posted in March 2017; o Year-to-date FY 2018 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections through March incorporate $678,908 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $392,885 recorded in FY 2017 through March.
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.