Beware the zombie short term rental listings!

Beware the zombies!  In light of Halloween today, many of our clients are not aware that short term rental listings can be in a state of inactivity while on the surface seeming to be active.  This phenomenon is termed “zombie listings”.  While the earthly zombies have pale grey skin, various facial disfigurations, and general ghastly

Switch over to our Short Term Rental Compliance service and save

Hundreds of municipalities are working on identifying and monitoring short term vacation rentals (STRs) to make sure they are in compliance with ordinances, properly licensed and permitted, and collecting lodging taxes.  In fact some have selected a vendor to outsource this work.  However, that vendor may not be delivering on all the leads that can

Cash Economy / Taxable Services

Repair of tangible personal property is taxable in many states, and also is prone to cash-based transactions.  Therefore, there is a significant risk of a cash economy and state sales tax not being collected.  Many online websites have appeared where consumers can look for reputable service providers such as AngiesList, HomeAdvisor or Craigslist.  These websites

5 Tips for issuing Short Term Rental Permit Numbers

When municipalities seek to regulate short term rentals, often something that is overlooked is the permitting system.  In fact the permit number has significant value to Code Compliance departments that have to make sure everyone’s on the same level playing field.   Here are some suggestions on how to design permit numbers: Always put the year

Harmari Condo HOA Short Term Rental Finder

If your condo building or homeowner’s association has problems with AirBnB operators running illegal short term rentals, there is a solution.  Harmari by LTAS, leaders in online investigation and data mining since 2011 have launched a short term rental monitoring solution specific to property management companies struggling with AirBnB problems. Harmari provides the following service:

Solve for X – The Short Term Rental Tax Gap

Harmari recently released a 20-minute training video on the technical challenges associated with detecting short term rentals (STRs, also known as STVRs) that are non-registered or under-reporting for lodging tax (also known as TOT, transient lodging tax, transient occupancy tax, bed tax, accommodations tax, etc).  Key metrics are discussed that help estimate identification and monitoring

Custom Columns enable fast, efficient compliance investigations

Custom Columns is a valuable new feature in Harmari Search, which will open up the metadata associated with Craigslist ads into a tabular format making it easy for compliance investigations.  You can go with our recommended presets, or select your own columns in our easy selection interface.  If you make a mistake, no problem; simply

5 Reasons why 1099K data won’t fill in the tax gap

With oil prices down 50% since Fall 2014, state revenue agencies are seeking ways to overcome the shortfall without increasing taxes.  The simplest answer is improved enforcement: discovery, lead development, audit and collections are key aspects of that.  The IRS’s IRMF data by state payee from 1099K filings is a good start if you haven’t

Open Source Discovery featured in 2014 FTA Technology Conference

LTAS Technologies co-presented a topic “1099K and E-commerce Discovery : Not a Slam Dunk!” at the 2014 FTA Technology Conference in Portland, Oregon earlier this month. Minnesota Revenue presented the government perspective on how both open source and 1099K data compliment each other to bring you a complete picture of a taxpayer. LTAS was on