I work for a non-profit and a recent hotel concierge told me that if “we had our paperwork on file,” we wouldn’t have to pay city or state taxes to stay at the hotel.
Which paperwork? They didn’t know… “I suppose the non-profit paperwork.”
Now I am really curious; we are a national non-profit but is there specific state paperwork and does anyone know how involved or what is involved to not have to pay taxes at hotels during business stays?
If you have a sales tax exemption from the state, there is usually a form which states that you have the exemption. If you are exempt from sales tax when buying supplies, it’s probably the same form.
You need a certificate of tax exemption (sometimes called a “tax letter”) that shows the business that you’re a legitimate tax-emept not-for-profit organization. Some businesses require that the certificate be on file, and that you (the individual) also present a document that attests you’re purchasing goods or services on behalf of the organization and not for personal use.
Here’s what a typical certificate looks like. But don’t use an online form - talk to one of the accounting types at your office to get your org’s official form.
Often, what’s wanted is a “Letter of Determination” issued by the IRS to the national entity.
It also depends on the state, I’ve worked in hotels and not all states exempt non-profits from taxes. It’s kind of complex depending on locales. For instance, in some states you can NOT get exempt from state tax, but can from city or county tax. And you can get exempt for things like meeting and/or food but not alcohol and the list goes on.
I work for the federal government, and when traveling on business, we are generally exempt from state hotel taxes, provided that we obtain the right form from the hotel. It varies from place to place.
This is all been very helpful - thank you, everyone.
We also qualify for some of the FedRates rooms but find that the cities we travel to have a limited number of those discounted rooms available.
We just signed a contract for extensive work in New York which is how this started to come about; I was researching hotels in Mid-Town Manhattan when the sales reps told me we should be exempt from paying the related taxes and it was the first I heard about it. Considering we will be booking upwards of 250 nights a year in NYC alone, it is worthy of me investigating this further.