Dewey Beach Town Council approved an ordinance April 25 to modify the wording of town code relating to its accommodation tax and establish a definition for an accommodations intermediary.

Under the ordinance, the responsibility to pay the town’s accommodation tax on a short-term rental property still falls on the property owner, but now with the condition that the property owner has the option to designate an agent to collect and pay the tax to the town. The change aims to benefit short-term rental property owners and helps bring the town code in line with the increasing popularity among homeowners of using third-party listing agents as a method of marketing and managing rental properties.

In some cases, the property owner’s designated agent is an accommodations intermediary, which is defined by the ordinance as any individual engaged in facilitating or arranging a residential rental to an occupant via a website or through other means. The term includes but is not limited to real estate broker, real estate agent, listing agent or property manager. It also includes rental companies like Vrbo and Airbnb.

Where the designated agent is an accommodations intermediary, that person will be in charge of collecting and paying the tax to the town, unless the property owner authorizes them in writing to collect the tax and remit the monies to the owner for the owner’s payment to the town.