Cook County News Herald

Short term rental tax rate reverts to 2019 rate



Unable to wrestle with the newly proposed legislation for short-term rentals, the senate passed a two-year moratorium on class rate changes.

Which means, said Senator Tom Bakk, “Seasonal rec from 2019 will be frozen in that class for tax years 2020 and 2021.”

Both Sen. Bakk and Rep. Rob Ecklund carried a bill to the floors of their respective legislative branches on behalf of Cook County that dealt with the short-term rental classification.

Al of Minnesota’s 87 county assessors were left to come up with a plan after they received the May 21, 2019 “Classifying short-term rental property” memorandum from the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

Cook County proposed that a property, which has multiple uses, both as a seasonal cabin and a short-term rental that is rented 183 nights (or more) in a calendar year would be classified commercial property.

Property rented 183 days or less in a year would be taxed as seasonal recreational, a substantial savings to the owner, versus being taxed as commercial property.

Senator Bakk said the senate was, “Kind of just taking a punt but there was no easy way to fix this problem without raising taxes on many other parcels.

Next year we will take another look at the issue.

The senator added that due to the COVID-19 pandemic issue, “Changes are coming but this remote environment we are working under is making it very difficult to tackle issues that require detailed runs on impacts to other parcels.”

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