Airbnb releases 2021 Tennessee Tax Report

Airbnb has released new data on its collection and remittance of sales and local occupancy taxes in the state of Tennessee. Last year, in addition to the state’s sales taxes, Airbnb began collecting local occupancy taxes on behalf of Hosts in jurisdictions across the state. This resulted in over $92 million being collected and remitted to the State of Tennessee’s Department of Revenue, an increase of approximately 185 percent over 2019 – an average travel year.  

In the US, we collected and remitted more than $1.5 billion in tourism taxes in 2021, in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico – an 87 percent increase over 2019. Prior to 2014, jurisdictions did not have an efficient way to receive these funds from travel booked on short-term rental platforms. Airbnb changed that by forming tax collection agreements with San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon that year and signaling to the world that the company wanted to collect and remit tourism taxes and work with local governments. Since then, and prior to the legislation we helped champion in Tennessee in 2020, we worked with cities like Knoxville and Memphis to collect and remit the local occupancy tax on behalf of our Hosts.

Today, taxes collected and remitted by Airbnb are key revenue-generating mechanisms for communities across Tennessee. Below is a breakdown of the approximate tax collection figures for Tennessee counties in 2021:

COUNTY	Tax Revenue from Airbnb
Anderson	$210,000
Bedford	$70,000
Benton	$10,000
Bledsoe	$40,000
Blount	$1,400,000
Bradley	$230,000
Campbell	$410,000
Cannon	$10,000
Carroll	$20,000
Carter	$310,000
Cheatham	$340,000
Chester	$20,000
Claiborne	$80,000
Clay	$40,000
Cocke	$550,000
Coffee	$70,000
Cumberland	$180,000
Davidson	$34,000,000
Decatur	$20,000
DeKalb	$300,000
Dickson	$70,000
Dyer	$10,000
Fentess	$30,000
Franklin	$410,000
Gibson	$20,000
Giles	$30,000
Grainger	$60,000
Greene	$60,000
Grundy	$290,000
Hamblen	$20,000
Hamilton	$3,500,000
Hancock	$10,000
Hardin	$120,000
Hawkins	$30,000
Henderson	$30,000
Henry	$90,000
Hickman	$40,000
Humphreys	$80,000
Jackson	$40,000
Jefferson	$570,000
Johnson	$260,000
Knox	$2,300,000
Lawrence	$50,000
Lewis	$10,000
Lincoln	$40,000
Loudon	$130,000
Madison	$120,000
Marion	$300,000
Marshall	$30,000
Maury	$270,000
McMinn	$80,000
McNairy	$10,000
Meigs	$80,000
Monroe	$200,000
Montgomery	$500,000
Moore	$30,000
Morgan	$50,000
Obion	$10,000
Overton	$50,000
Perry	$10,000
Pickett	$50,000
Polk	$170,000
Putnam	$320,000
Rhea	$120,000
Roane	$110,000
Robertson	$110,000
Rutherford	$710,000
Scott	$80,000
Sequatchie	$60,000
Sevier	$33,000,000
Shelby	$4,000,000
Smith	$40,000
Stewart	$50,000
Sullivan	$300,000
Sumner	$460,000
Tipton	$10,000
Trousdale	$10,000
Unicoi	$90,000
Union	$100,000
Van Buren	$80,000
Warren	$70,000
Washington	$330,000
Wayne	$20,000
Williamson	$20,000
Wilson	$100,000