Short-term rentals: business licenses: transient occupancy taxes.

(1) Existing law, subject to certain limitations, authorizes the legislative body of a city or the board of supervisors of a county to license any kind of business not prohibited by law transacted and carried on with the limits of the city's or county's jurisdiction and fix rates of a license fee, as provided. Existing law requires a hosting platform, as defined, to provide a specified notice to an offeror listing a residence for short-term rental on a hosting platform. This bill would specify that the legislative body of a city or the board of supervisors of a county may, under the above-described authority, license and fix rates of a license fee for short-term rentals, as defined. If a city or county licenses short-term rentals under these provisions, the bill would require that the city or county post specified information on its internet website with respect to each licensee. The bill would require an offeror who lists a residence for short-term rental on a hosting platform, and who was required to obtain a license by a licensing county or city, to include the license number on that listing. The bill would impose on an offeror who violates this requirement a fine of up to $1,000, as determined by the licensing county or city, for each day that the residence is listed on a hosting platform without including the license number. The bill would require a hosting platform to provide, upon request of a licensing county or city, location information for each listing that is within the jurisdiction of the licensing county or city for the purpose of confirming the license number of listings within the jurisdiction of a licensing county or city. The bill would also expressly authorize the legislative body of a city or the board of supervisors of a county to enact an ordinance or resolution that regulates a hosting platform in specified ways, including prohibiting the listing of short-term rentals that do not have a valid license from the city or county. The bill would specify that this authorization does not prohibit the legislative body of a city or the board of supervisors of a county from enacting any other regulation of a hosting platform that is consistent with its police power and not otherwise prohibited by law. (2) Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or county to levy a tax on the privilege of occupying a room or other living space in a hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, or other lodging unless the occupancy is for a period of more than 30 days, as provided. Under existing law, a charter city, pursuant to its constitutional authority over municipal affairs, may levy local taxes to raise revenues for local purposes, subject to restrictions imposed by that city's charter or preemption in matters of statewide concern. This bill would require, on and after July 1, 2021, an operator of a hosting platform engaged in business in this state to collect any transient occupancy tax of a city, including a charter city, that is levied on the occupancy of a residential unit offered and reserved through the hosting platform. This bill would require the operator to remit any transient occupancy taxes collected to the city in a form and manner as may be determined by the legislative body of the city and to include specified information with that remittance. This bill would provide that any transient occupancy tax collected by an operator constitutes a debt owed by the operator to the city that levied the transient occupancy tax. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.