CITY HALL — Average city taxpayers should expect to pay more if they have cable TV, borrow a ZipCar, rent out a place via AirBNB and more under the 2015 budget approved Wednesday by the City Council.
While the budget didn't include a property tax increase, it did hike a number of other taxes and fees, including a plan to try to collect a 4.5 percent hotel tax on vacation rentals. The measure passed Wednesday will put the onus on online firms like AirBNB to collect the tax on anything arranged through their booking systems.
Budget Director Alexandra Holt said earlier this month the effort to collect the tax on vacation rentals would raise $1 million.
The budget also fully eliminated an exemption on the entertainment tax for cable TV, which the city said will produce an estimated $12 million. And a 9 percent lease tax to be imposed on car-sharing firms like IGO and ZipCar was expected to generate $1 million.
The major amendments in the budget submitted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel a month ago include closing a sales-tax loophole on goods bought outside the city, to the tune of $17 million, and imposing a property lease tax on software and office equipment, to the tune of $15 million.
The budget also phases out an exemption for stadium skyboxes, which will now be taxed at full value on the city's entertainment tax, up from the earlier 60 percent. Phasing out the skybox exemption will produce an additional $4.4 million in revenue, the city said.
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