A Tourism Improvement District ("TID") was recently created by the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The new TID is authorized to
charge each hotel in the district an assessment based on its revenue
from room rentals. The following summarizes pertinent provisions of
the TID Management Plan, as approved by the Board of Supervisors. The
Management Plan is available in its entirety at: http://www.sfcvb.org/members/TID.asp
The TID assessment is required to be paid to the San Francisco
Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office on a quarterly basis. The
assessment will be effective as of January 1, 2009, and the first
payment to the San Francisco Tax Collector will be due in April, 2009.
The assessment will be 1.5% of the gross revenue for a guest room
for hotels located in Zone 1 and 1% of the gross revenue for a guest
room for hotels located in Zone 2. Zone 1 hotels are all hotels with
addresses on or east of Van Ness Avenue, on or east of South Van Ness
Avenue, and on or north of 16th Street from South Van Ness to the Bay,
including all hotels east of Van Ness Avenue as if it continued north
to the Bay, and north of 16th Street as if it continued east to the
Bay. Zone 2 hotels are all hotels with addresses west of Van Ness
Avenue and South Van Ness Avenue, and all hotels south of 16th Street.
Hotels subject to the assessment are allowed to collect the amount
of the assessment from hotel guests. If the assessment is passed on to
guests, it must appear on a guest's bill as a separately stated line
item called "Tourism Improvement District Assessment" or "Tourism
District Assessment." It may not be included in the Transient
Occupancy Tax billed to the guest. Charges for hotel guests who have
made reservations in 2008 for 2009 occupancy are not exempt from the
TID assessment.
For purposes of calculating the TID assessment, "Gross Revenue From
Guest Rooms" means: the consideration received for occupancy valued in
money, whether received in money or otherwise, including all receipts,
cash, credits, and property of any kind or nature, without any
deduction therefrom whatsoever. Gross revenue from guest rooms includes
only the following charges, regardless of how such charges are
characterized:
-
Charges for a guest room (including non-refundable deposits) regardless of whether the guest uses the room
-
Charges for additional guests to occupy the room
-
Charges for guaranteeing the availability of a room (sometimes
referred to as guaranteed "no-show" charges) regardless of whether the
guest uses the room (excluding event attrition fees and event
cancellation fees paid by event organizers)
"Gross Revenue From Guest Rooms" does not include:
- charges for guest rooms occupied by permanent residents, defined
as: "Any occupant as of a given date who has or shall have occupied, or
has or shall have the right of occupancy, of any guest room in a hotel
for at least 30 consecutive days next preceding such date;"
- revenue from the lodging of airline crews, i.e., lodging provided
to airline cockpit and/or cabin crews pursuant to an agreement between
a hotel and an airline, which is in furtherance of or to facilitate
such crews' performance of their jobs for the airline, including
layovers between flights;
- the City's Transient Occupancy Tax collected on the room rent and remitted to the City and County of San Francisco; or
- charges for guest rooms located in non-profit, purely private social
clubs that make guest rooms available only for the use of their
members. The term "purely private social clubs" means non-profit,
private membership clubs, whose primary purpose is social, which are
owned by a limited membership, and which do not advertise or promote
the use of their facilities by the public. Further, entities that allow
guest rooms to be occupied by non-members, including via reciprocal
arrangements with other clubs or organizations or upon referral of a
member, shall not constitute "purely private social clubs" as defined
herein.
Exemptions from the transient occupancy tax have no bearing on exemptions related to the TID assessment.
The San Francisco Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office will provide a process for reporting and paying the TID assessment.
For more information about the TID, including a copy of the Management Plan, please visit http://www.sfcvb.org/members/TID.asp
or call the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau at
415-974-6900 and ask to speak about the Tourism Improvement District.
