Council to consider regulating vacation rentals

[kalakoa]

exposing that fraud

Indeed. From the fine HTH article:

"Our condo is listed on the financial disclosure form, however it operates at a loss and doesn't produce income in excess of $1,000," Eoff told the newspaper Friday.

Really? How does she manage that? Fabricated paper loss for tax purposes, or comletely inept businessperson? Either should disqualify her from Council. Except we don't have a functioning Ethics Board.

[leilanidude]

Many vacation rentals operate at a loss. After paying the mortgage, higher property taxes, maintenance, cleaning, GET, TAT, fees from the websites, etc...

[kalakoa]

Many vacation rentals operate at a loss.

Then they should fail in the free market without expensive regulations, unless what's really happening is taxation of real estate speculators (who don't actually have to participate in our market, and are already paying extra for that privilege).

Maybe what we need is another lava flow emergency to balance things out.

[leilanidude]

Then they should fail in the free market without expensive regulations, unless what's really happening is taxation of real estate speculators (who don't actually have to participate in our market, and are already paying extra for that privilege).
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I see most of these vacation rentals in Puna as being owned as a second house, possibly for their later retirement. They use them as a way to keep the house maintained until they are able to retire to it.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

owned as a second house, possibly for their later retirement

Another possibility is the homes are purchased as a long term investment, operated as a vacation rental at a loss to reduce other state and federal income taxes, then later sold at a profit after the price of homes has increased over time.

Recycle Puna. Humans, although probably not you personally, have already left 400,000 pounds of trash on the moon. - YouTube's Half As Interesting

[My 2 cents]

From the article:

“Our condo is listed on the financial disclosure form, however it operates at a loss and doesn’t produce income in excess of $1,000,” Eoff told the newspaper Friday. “The Financial Disclosure Form asks for annual income in excess of $1,000 and therefore no income was reported.”

“‘Income’ means gross income defined by section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954,” according to the county code. The IRS code includes rents.

No comment necessary.

[My 2 cents]

I guess I do have a question though. If she thought it was all on the up and up, why did she lie about it?

[tweez]

quote:

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Originally posted by leilanidude

Then they should fail in the free market without expensive regulations, unless what's really happening is taxation of real estate speculators (who don't actually have to participate in our market, and are already paying extra for that privilege).
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I see most of these vacation rentals in Puna as being owned as a second house, possibly for their later retirement. They use them as a way to keep the house maintained until they are able to retire to it.

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This - we are not trying to make a profit, we are just trying to offset as much of the cost as we can until we can move full time. Our goal is to get as close to break even as possible.

[VancouverIslander]

Maximum depreciation is mandatory for rental houses under US tax laws, which is a major reason for no taxable income on some rental properties. This is often recaptured as capital gains when the property is sold due to the depreciated capital expense at time of sale.

Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike

[PaulW]

I know of at least 3 examples nearby of people who did just that - ran their houses as vacation rentals until eventually they retired and moved in themselves. Definitely an abomination that needs to be taxed out of existence.