Short-term rentals in Boulder, explained properly.

Section 10-3-19(b) limits who can be licensed. A not-for-profit corporation can be rejected if the city manager finds its application inconsistent with the chapter's goals, which include letting not-for-profits support their mission through short-term rentals, preserving long-term rental units and preventing investor-owned short-term rentals. Subsection (f) bars a license for a property in which any entity that is not tax exempt holds a fee simple interest. The city's application page says ownership may not be in an LLC, corporation or limited partnership to qualify.

Section 10-3-19(d) requires a natural person applicant's name to appear on the deed with at least a fifty percent fee simple ownership interest, and subsection (e) requires a trust to hold at least fifty percent. The city page says a renter cannot run a short-term rental: a tenant whose landlord approves is still using the property illegally within city limits, because short-term rentals are only allowed in owner-occupied properties. The festival lodging license is not subject to these ownership paragraphs; it needs a sworn statement of ownership, or for a tenant licensee an attestation from the owner or the owner's agent that festival lodging is permitted in the unit.

Section 10-3-19(m) says the city manager shall not issue more than one short-term rental license to any applicant. Subsection (q)(3) says a festival lodging rental license is not subject to paragraph (m).

Section 10-3-19(n) says the city manager shall not issue a short-term rental license for a dwelling, dwelling unit, rooming unit, room or portion of one that is otherwise licensed as a rental under the chapter or is subject to an affidavit of exemption filed under Section 10-3-2(b), and that once a unit is licensed as a short-term rental no other type of rental license may be issued for it. The city page says owners may switch between the two types, only one type of license may be issued at a time, an existing standard license is cancelled when a short-term application is made, and a new fee is due.

Section 10-3-19(q) allows a festival lodging rental license, a form of short-term rental license, for an eligible property on the same requirements as the regular license except as stated. It is exempt from paragraphs (b), (d), (e), (f), (g), (j), (m), (n), (o) and (p), so the principal-residence, deed ownership and annual affidavit paragraphs do not apply to it. It still must show the license number in advertisements, and advertising and occupancy are limited to the dates of an event for which the city has issued a Special Festival Event License or otherwise approved a special festival event within city limits, plus ten days before the license commencement date and nine days after the conclusion date. It cannot be used more than twenty-nine days a year. A license expires four years after issue, or one year for a tenant licensee on a unit that holds another rental license. The licensee pays the fee described in Section 4-20-18.

The city's license page says short-term rentals may be rented for 29 days or fewer at a time and defines them as properties rented for 29 days or less at a time. We did not read the code definition of a short-term rental (Section 9-16-1 and Chapter 10-1). A principal residence rented in its entirety can be rented any number of days a year; an accessory unit may be rented up to 120 days a year (29 days or less at a time).

Section 10-3-19(i) says occupancy of a short-term rental shall not exceed the occupancy permitted under Chapter 10-2, Property Maintenance Code. Subsection (k) says no person shall rent a dwelling unit in a way that requires or encourages a person to sleep in an area that is not habitable under the International Property Maintenance Code. The city's page says every advertisement must show the maximum allowed unrelated occupancy. We did not read Chapter 10-2, so the actual number is not stated here.

Section 10-3-19(l) says no person shall advertise a short-term rental unless the advertisement includes the valid short-term rental license number once assigned by the city manager. The occupancy statement comes from the city's license page, not from this subsection.

Section 10-3-19(c) requires the application to certify that the dwelling unit has operational smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and other life safety equipment the city manager may require, and to give the names and telephone numbers of two contacts who, for owner-operated rentals, can be permanent residents on the property and who can respond to the property within sixty minutes. Under subsection (h), short-term rentals are not subject to the inspection requirements of Section 10-3-3(b), except for a detached ADU, whose application needs an inspection report under subsection (o). The city's page says the owner self-certifies the safety equipment.

Section 10-3-19(p) requires a licensee who gave a sworn residence statement with the original application to submit a new one each year within thirty days of the anniversary of the license's issue and pay the fee in Section 4-20-18. The city page says the annual affidavit and fee are due by the anniversary date, that failing to complete it results in revocation, and that it is not required in the license's renewal year. The license page lists the fee as $20; see the license fee rule for the date caveat.

The license page sends owners to the Boulder Online Tax System for filing short-term rental accommodations tax and to [email protected] with questions, and says all returns are filed on forms generated through that system. The city's tax page says the City of Boulder is home ruled and self-collected, so city taxes are remitted directly to the City, and that State of Colorado, Boulder County and RTD taxes go to the Colorado Department of Revenue. The filing and licensing provisions that used to be in Chapters 3-3 and 3-15 were repealed in 2018 (Ordinance 8237, adopted February 6, 2018, effective March 8, 2018) and are not in the chapters we read.

Colorado charges its 2.9% state sales tax on the entire amount charged for rooms and accommodations. A stay may also owe local sales taxes that the Colorado Department of Revenue collects for counties and special districts, and any sales tax of a home-rule city that collects its own tax (see below).

State sales tax does not apply to a room or accommodations rented to a person who is a permanent resident of it and has a written agreement to occupy it for at least 30 consecutive days. Shorter stays are taxed.

The Colorado Department of Revenue says anyone who offers rooms or accommodations for rent must get a Colorado sales tax license and collect sales tax on taxable rentals. A seller who makes sales only through a marketplace may be exempt from licensing, collection and filing if the marketplace collects all state and state-administered local sales taxes for them. The license costs $16 (prorated) plus a $50 deposit, a separate license is needed for each business location, and licenses expire on December 31 of odd-numbered years.

For rooms rented through a marketplace (including online platforms), the marketplace facilitator must collect and remit the state sales tax and the local sales taxes the state collects, plus any county lodging tax and local marketing district tax. City taxes in home-rule cities are separate (see below).

The Colorado Department of Revenue does not administer any lodging tax imposed by a city or town, and it does not collect sales tax for home-rule cities that collect their own. Those taxes are licensed, filed and paid with the city.