The City of Two Rivers wants to look at how too much room tax money was collected from a short-term rental property owner.
Last night, The city council (January 6th) approved returning $31,210 to Baeten Lakeshore Properties after that was collected in Room tax.
City Manager Greg Buckley explained that the local renter got the tax collected twice because the company that the renter uses already paid the tax money to the city, and then the property owner was asked to pay as well.
The council had questions as to why it happened, how it can be prevented, and can their Room Tax fund be able to give it back?
Councilwoman Bonnie Shimulunas first asked that the issue be sent back to the city’s Finance Committee to investigate how it happened.
“The point is it’s easy to miss something when you don’t have all the details. That’s all I wanted to say.”
Councilmember Adam Wachowski explained that he was concerned about how much the city’s general fund was responsible for the return.
“I want to only be responsible for what the General Fund actually took out of Room Tax in any given year to pay that back,” he explained. “Not that we’re just straight 30% because that’s what we do now, and that’s what our goal is. I don’t just want to willy-nilly that.”
The council was going to move the whole issue back to The Personal and Finance Committee, but in the end, they just approved the return and will look at how the overcollection happened during their next committee meeting this Thursday.
The issue was brought up during a special meeting in December but was tabled because of the council’s questions.
