Many states, including my home state of Florida, have been unbundling the online travel company mess from a tax perspective over the last few years. Like many state and local tax issues, states have been all over the map when it comes to the taxation of new technology-type transactions. In the online travel industry, companies like Orbitz, Expedia, and Hotels.com (“OTCs”) purchase rooms at a low rate and facilitate a deal with customers to rent them from the hotel. Like many businesses tend to do, the online travel company turns a profit in this transaction. The problem that has arisen is whether the state and its counties should collect tax on the price charged from the hotel to the OTC or the higher price charged from the OTC to the customer.

One of the few states that seem to have a final determination is Georgia. Georgia is one of the few states that had the issue go up the judicial ladder to its Supreme Court. Ultimately in City of Atlanta v. Hotels.com, 710 SE 2d 766 (Ga 2011), the court ruled in favor of the city and determined that the bed tax applied to the higher amount. As an aside, many states have ruled exactly the opposite and it is worth pointing out that the counties, not the states, have been the aggressors in these cases.

After remaining dormant for a few years, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the case was still not closed. Apparently, in the opinion, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in a footnote that the trial court did not rule on the city’s Read More