Airbnb is in the Tax Collection Business
The convergence of payments, Fintech social media and the gig economy is coming faster than anybody thought. Airbnb is now collecting taxes in South Florida.
The popular home-sharing platform has agreed to start collecting resort or hotel-room taxes on behalf of Miami-Dade County, The South Florida Business Journal reported. The agreement will net Miami-Dade County around $8 million in new tax rental each year.
This makes Miami-Dade the 36th county in the Sunshine State in which Airbnb is collecting taxes from host. The tax collection efforts demonstrate that Airbnb is an effective payment collections platform and a potent Fintech solution.
Airbnb Hosts Might Face Fine for Not Collecting Tax
Not paying the tax can cost hosts a fortune, The Journal reported. Airbnb hosts that fail to pay Miami Beach’s 3% bed tax can be subject to a fine of up to $20,000.
Around 27 counties in Florida collect so-called bed taxes which is another expense that hosts have to worry about. Fortunately Airbnb is taking care of that expense for the hosts these days.
Payfully Helps Hosts get Cash Fast
Airbnb hosts who want or need cash fast can get it through the factoring platform Payfully. Payfully pays cash for unpaid Airbnb bookings.
A factoring solution such as Payfully can enable a host to have cash paid directly into his or her bank account for Airbnb bookings within 48 hours. Many hosts using Payfully because they often have a hard time borrowing from banks and other traditional lenders.
Another advantage to Airbnb is that is not a loan or credit. Instead the platform payout is based on a percentage of the booking. That means hosts will not have pay Payfully back and the cash advance will not affect credit scores.
Ant Financial Trying to Buy MoneyGram
China’s fintech and payment giant Ant Financial is trying to buy the US money order and wiring service MoneyGram International (NASDAQ: MGI). Ant is trying to head off its American rival PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL) which owns the money transfer solution Xoom.
MoneyGram’s services are available in many retailers including stores of America’s largest retailer Walmart (NYSE: WMT). Owning MoneyGram would put Ant in a great position to get a piece of the international remittance business. Immigrants sent $538 billion in remittances to friends and family in their homelands in 2014, the World Bank reported.
Ant is offering $13.15 a share for MoneyGram, but it faces a counteroffer from Euronet Worldwide which is offering $15.20 a share, Bloomberg Technology reported. Ant is now considering whether to outbid Euronet or withdraw.
If Ant does not get MoneyGram it might try buying another popular money-wiring business such as America’s historic Western Union (NYSE: WU) or Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT) Money Gram had a market capitalization of $894.74 million on March 22, 2017. The Western Union had a market cap of $9.693 billion on March 22, 2017. Green Dot had market capitalization of $1.638 billion on the same day.
Fintech is now the future, solutions like Ant Financial are the future of both finance and the gig economy. Companies like Airbnb will have to expand their fintech offerings or risk getting bought out by Fintech giants such as Ant.
