Providence, R.I. -- The Rhode Island Department of Revenue today released its FY 2018 Local 1.0 Percent Hotel Tax Collections Report for February 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 February 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 February 2018. The February 2017 local hotel tax collections from these rentals were not recorded until March 2017 along with the March 2017 local hotel tax collections from these rentals. As a result, February 2017 local hotel tax collections are understated.
For the City of Newport, local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections from these rentals covers July 2017 through February 2018 and October 2016 through February 2017 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 February 2018 and January 2018, at a rate of 6.1 percent, slightly below the same period last fiscal year when the increase was 7.1 percent; o February 2018 cash collections include $38,784 in receipts attributable to the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $50,184 accounted for in January 2018; • Year-over-year local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections rose for February 2018, rose sharply at a 21.2 percent rate, nearly double the 10.9 percent growth rate recorded in February 2017. o Year-over-year FY 2018 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections include $38,784 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $19,516 recorded in February 2017; • Fiscal year-to-date over fiscal year-to-date increase in local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections for February 2018 were a very strong 18.5 percent, a 6.7 percentage point increase from the fiscal year-to-date-over-fiscal year-to-date growth rate posted in February 2017; o Year-to-date FY 2018 local 1.0 percent hotel tax collections through January incorporate $640,939 of receipts generated from the local 1.0 percent hotel tax base expansion vs. $299,550 recorded in FY 2017 through February.
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.