58.1-3510.4 - Short-term rental property; short-term rental businesses.
§ 58.1-3510.4. Short-term rental property; short-term rental businesses.
A. For purposes of this article, "short-term rental property" means alltangible personal property held for rental and owned by a person engaged inthe short-term rental business as defined in subsection B, excluding (i)trailers as defined in § 46.2-100, and (ii) other tangible personal propertyrequired to be licensed or registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles,Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, or Department of Aviation.
Short-term rental property shall constitute a classification of merchants'capital that is separate from other classifications of merchants' capital.For local property taxation purposes, the governing body of any county, city,or town may tax short-term rental property pursuant to § 58.1-3509 or mayimpose the tax authorized under § 58.1-3510.6, but not both.
B. A person is engaged in the short-term rental business if:
1. Not less than 80 percent of the gross rental receipts of such businessduring the preceding year arose from transactions involving the rental ofshort-term rental property, other than heavy equipment property as defined insubdivision 2, for periods of 92 consecutive days or less, including allextensions and renewals to the same person or a person affiliated with thelessee; or
2. Not less than 60 percent of the gross rental receipts of such businessduring the preceding year arose from transactions involving the rental ofheavy equipment property for periods of 270 consecutive days or less,including all extensions and renewals to the same person or a personaffiliated with the lessee. For the purposes of this subdivision, "heavyequipment property" means rental property of an industry that is describedunder code 532412 or 532490 of the 2002 North American IndustryClassification System as published by the United States Census Bureau,excluding office furniture, office equipment, and programmable computerequipment and peripherals as defined in § 58.1-3503 A 16.
C. For purposes of determining whether a person is engaged in the short-termrental business as defined in subsection B, (i) a person is "affiliated"with the lessee of rental property if such person is an officer, director,partner, member, shareholder, parent or subsidiary of the lessee, or if suchperson and the lessee have any common ownership interest in excess of fivepercent, (ii) any rental to a person affiliated with the lessee shall betreated as rental receipts but shall not qualify for purposes of the 80percent requirement of subdivision 1 of subsection B or the 60 percentrequirement of subdivision 2 of subsection B, and (iii) any rental ofpersonal property which also involves the provision of personal services forthe operation of the personal property rented shall not be treated as grossreceipts from rental, provided however that the delivery and installation oftangible personal property shall not mean operation for the purposes of thissubdivision.
D. A person who has not previously been engaged in the short-term rentalbusiness who applies for a certificate of registration pursuant to §58.1-3510.5 shall be eligible for registration upon his certification that heanticipates meeting the requirements of a specific subdivision of subsectionB, designated by the applicant at the time of application, during the yearfor which registration is sought.
E. In the event that the commissioner of the revenue makes a writtendetermination that a rental business previously certified as short-termrental business pursuant to § 58.1-3510.5 has failed to meet either of thetests set forth in subsection B during a preceding tax year, such businessshall lose its certification as a short-term rental business and shall besubject to the business personal property tax with respect to all rentalproperty for the tax year in which such certification is lost and anysubsequent tax years until such time as the rental business obtainsrecertification pursuant to § 58.1-3510.5. In the event that a rentalbusiness loses its certification as a short-term rental business pursuant tothis subsection, such business shall not be required to refund to customersdaily rental property taxes previously collected in good faith and shall notbe subject to assessment for business personal property taxes with respect torental property for tax years preceding the year in which the certificationis lost unless the commissioner makes a written determination that thebusiness obtained its certification by knowingly making materially falsestatements in its application, in which case the commissioner may assess thetaxpayer the amount of the difference between short-term rental propertytaxes remitted by such business during the period in which the taxpayerwrongfully held certification and the business personal property taxes thatwould have been due during such period but for the certification obtained bythe making of the materially false statements. Any such assessment, and anydetermination not to certify or to decertify a rental business as ashort-term rental business as defined in this subsection, may be appealedpursuant to the procedures and requirements set forth in § 58.1-3983.1 forappeals of local business taxes, which shall apply mutatis mutandis to suchassessments and certification decisions.
F. A rental business that has been decertified pursuant to the provisions ofsubsection E shall be eligible for recertification for a subsequent tax yearupon a showing that it has met one of the tests provided in subsection B forat least ten months of operations during the present tax year.
(2009, cc. 480, 692; 2010, cc. 255, 295.)