What's happening
This bill extends hotel occupancy taxes and safety regulations to private residences rented out for money, such as short-term rentals.
Why it matters
Brings private short-term rentals under the same tax laws as hotels. By defining "hosts" who rent out private residences for money, the bill ensures these rentals must collect and remit hotel occupancy taxes, potentially increasing state and city revenue and leveling the playing field between traditional hotels and platforms like Airbnb.
Applies hotel safety requirements to private rentals. Private residences rented short-term will need to post emergency exit and fire information, just like hotels, improving guest safety and making standards consistent across all types of accommodations.
Mandates accessibility features for guests with disabilities. The legislation requires a portion of private short-term rentals—like hotels—to have portable smoke alarms with both audible and visual alerts for the deaf and hard of hearing, expanding accessibility and potentially reducing risk for vulnerable guests.
Signals increased oversight and regulation of home-sharing. By formally including private rentals in tax and safety laws, the bill marks a shift toward more regulation of the short-term rental market, which could affect how easily individuals can rent out their homes and how platforms operate in New York.
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Who cares
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Tax and Regulate Home Rentals
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History
- Referred to ways and means
- Referred to ways and means
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4043
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 31, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. WEPRIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
AN ACT to amend the tax law and the executive law, in relation to private residences rented out for a monetary payment
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision (e) of section 1105 of the tax law is amended by adding a new paragraph 1-a to read as follows:
(1-a) The rent for every occupancy room or rooms in a private residence or host in this state. For purposes of this section, a host is an individual who rents out their private residence to another in exchange for a monetary payment and such residence is not regularly used and kept open as such for the lodging of guests.
§ 2. Subdivision (a) of section 1104 of the tax law, as added by chapter 3 of the laws of 2004, is amended to read as follows:
(a) Imposition. In addition to any other fee or tax imposed by this article or any other law, on and after April first, two thousand five, there is hereby imposed within the territorial limits of a city with a population of a million or more and there shall be paid a unit fee on every occupancy of a unit in a hotel or room in a private residence rented out for a monetary payment in such city at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents per unit per day, except that such unit fee shall not be imposed upon (1) occupancy by a permanent resident or (2) where the rent per unit is not more than at the rate of two dollars per day.
§ 3. Subdivisions 5 and 8 of section 378 of the executive law, subdivision 5 as added by chapter 374 of the laws of 1984 and subdivision 8 as amended by chapter 221 of the laws of 2018, are amended to read as follows:
5. Standards for hotels, motels, private residences rented out for a monetary payment and lodging houses, requiring that a notice be posted
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08183-01-9
A. 4043 2
in a prominent place in each guest room, including but not limited to the following information:
a. location of nearest exits and fire alarms;
b. procedures to be followed when the fire or smoke detector gives warning; and
c. procedures to be followed in the event of fire or smoke development.
8. Standards for hotels, motels, private residences rented out for a monetary payment and lodging houses requiring (in addition to any other requirement) portable smoke-detecting alarm devices for the deaf and hard of hearing of audible and visual design, available for three percent of all units available for occupancy, with a minimum of one unit. If any other law or regulation requires a central, closed circuit interior alarm system, such device shall be incorporated into or connected to the system so as to be capable of being activated by the system. Incorporation into the existing system shall be in lieu of the portable alarms. Standards shall require operators of any such establishment to post conspicuously at the main desk or other similar station a notice in letters at least three inches in height stating that smokedetector alarm devices for the deaf and hard of hearing are available. The council shall mandate by rule and regulation the specific design of the smoke-detector alarm devices.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
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