§ 13 — Collection of rent by intermediary; collection and remittance of excise by intermediary

Massachusetts § 13

• Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
• Part I: ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
• Title IX: TAXATION
• Ch. 64G: ROOM OCCUPANCY EXCISE

Text

[Subsection (a) effective as provided by 2018, 337, Sec. 15A as added by 2019, 5, Sec. 37.]

Section 13. (a) An operator may elect to allow an intermediary to collect rent or facilitate the collection or payment of rent on its behalf through a written agreement on an accommodation subject to the excise under this chapter. An intermediary that enters into a written agreement with the operator to collect rent or facilitate the collection or payment of rent on behalf of the operator of an accommodation subject to the excise under this chapter shall: (i) apply for and obtain a certificate of registration from the commissioner in accordance with section 67 of chapter 62C on behalf of the operator; (ii) assess, collect, report and remit the excise to the commissioner as described for operators in sections 3, 3A, 3B, 3C, 5, 7A, 7B and 12; (iii) assess, collect and remit the community impact fee to the commissioner as described for operators in section 3D; (iv) maintain records of any excises collected that have been remitted to the commissioner and shall make these records available to the department upon request; (v) ensure that the operator is registered pursuant to said section 67 of said chapter 62C prior to the intermediary collecting any rent from an occupant or facilitating the collection or payment of rent on behalf of an operator; and (vi) notify the operator that the operator must comply with all applicable municipal, state and federal laws including, but not limited to, the collection and remittance of required excises. The certificate of registration obtained from the commissioner pursuant to this subsection shall identify and be in the name of the individual operator, not the intermediary.

(b) An intermediary collecting and remitting the excise on behalf of an operator shall provide notification within a reasonable time to the operator that the excise has been collected and remitted to the commissioner pursuant to section 3. The notification may be delivered in hand or by mail or conveyed by electronic message, mobile or smart phone application or another similar electronic process, digital media or communication portal. An operator shall not be responsible for collecting and remitting the excise on a transaction for which the operator has received notification from an intermediary that the excise has been collected and remitted to the commissioner on their behalf.

(c) The intermediary shall not be liable for faults in collecting or remitting the excise proximately caused by the intermediary's reasonable reliance on representations made to it by the operator about the nature of the property being rented, the duration of the occupancy or other similar misrepresentations made by the operator to the intermediary. The operator shall be liable for any unpaid excise resulting from any such misrepresentation. An intermediary shall not be liable for any over collection of the excise if the excise collected was remitted to the commissioner and the over collection resulted from the intermediary's reasonable reliance on the operator's representations about the nature of the property being rented or the nature of the occupancy or whether such property was exempt from the excise. The operator shall be liable for monetary damages to the occupant resulting from any such misrepresentations.