CPA Georgetown AlternativeClose the month that has both
A host whose payout arrived, and whose city hotel tax did not, is who this page is for. We close that month so both duties sit in the books on purpose.
Book the closeThe month that carries both duties
A stay ends. The platform sends a payout a few days later. The deposit in the bank is smaller than the guest paid, because the platform kept a fee and may have handled the state hotel tax. The city still expects 7 percent from the host, reported on or before the 20th. If you book only the deposit, the month looks profitable and the tax looks imaginary. The return will not agree.
We pull the payout apart before we call the month closed. Gross stays, platform fees, any tax the platform remitted, and the net cash each get a line. The city hotel tax gets a line of its own, either as a payment already made or as an amount still owed. Sales tax, when the stay is the kind that collects it, is not left inside room income.
What we tie before we say the month is done
The bank has to match. That sounds plain because it is plain. Every payout, every refund, every cleaner paid by transfer, every supply run, has to be the same number in the bank and in the books. A feed that suggests a category is a hint, not a close. We still open the payout report and name the stays.
Working papers for the month are short on purpose. A payout tie-out, a bank reconciliation, the city tax computation, and a note if something is still open. An open item keeps the month unfinished, and we leave it marked open rather than smoothing it over.
More than 30 miles of hike and bike trails follow the San Gabriel. Every Texan who has walked a river path knows the map understates the distance. A payout feels like the end of the path. The city tax is often still ahead of you. We would rather say that out loud in the close than discover it in a spring notice.
Why the payout does not finish the city tax
Payroll is setup, and the close still sees it
If you pay a person, payday stays on a provider you already operate, and we only help you get that setup in place. We do not run payday and we do not file those returns as a side favor. The close still needs those entries. A co-host paid in cash and never recorded will make the bank and the books disagree, and the disagreement hides in the same month as the hotel tax.
The arithmetic is the easy half. Sunday night is when the payout, the cleaner, and the tax collapse into one blur, and the close is how that blur gets a page. Same day each month. Same papers. The heat in July does not get to decide whether June was finished.
What we ask you to keep
The platform statements, the bank export, and any city filing confirmation you already have. If you have not filed, say so. We would rather start from a true open month than from a story that the tax was handled. A note on which cabin or which room the stay belonged to saves a week later, when a lender asks for property level numbers.
Financial statements fall out of that work. They are the month, told in the ordinary way, not a special report with a signature. When a signature of that kind is required, we stop and say who can give it.
A refund is the stay run backwards. The platform pulls cash, the fee may return in part, and the city tax you already computed has to shrink with the stay. We do not leave the original payout sitting in income and park the refund in a miscellaneous cost. The tie-out for that week shows the stay, the reversal, and the tax that moved with them.
The 20th is a morning with a shape. The payout report for the prior month is saved. The bank is matched through the last day. The city computation sits on one page with the lodging subject to the tax, the 7 percent, and a note if a platform already sent the state's 6 percent. If any of those is missing, the report waits and the month stays open. Filing a guess to feel finished is how a notice gets its start.
Co-host money is the quiet third duty. A split paid from the payout, or a cleaner paid from the same account, has to be named. Otherwise the host's income includes someone else's share, and the bank will not match the story the return wants. When the person is an employee, payroll is set up on a provider you run. A contractor still needs a record. That note is filed with the month, beside the payout it came out of.
The feeling when the month is finished is ordinary relief. The Sunday blur becomes a page you could hand to a lender without a speech. That is why the close has a set day, including in July, when the afternoon is at 100 degrees and nobody wants to reconstruct June from memory.
Which month is open
From that note we can tell you how long a close of that month would run.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.