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Governor Schweitzer Making Sure Online Travel Companies Are Paying Up

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Aug 30, 2010 at 5:05 PM MST

Story Updated: Aug 30, 2010 at 5:05 PM MST

Governor Schweitzer is asking the Department of Revenue’s Dan Buck to make sure that online travel companies are paying correct lodging taxes to the state of Montana.

“These online travel companies have been forced to pay their taxes in more than 300 governmental jurisdictions across the country and it appears to us at least some of them are not paying their full back taxes in Montana, cheating the income, innkeeper and tourism industry out of important funds we use for promoting tourism in Montana,” says Schweitzer.

Buck says it is too early to tell which out-of-state companies owe any additional taxes to the Treasure State or the total amount but based on other states experiences, the amount of back taxes owed could be in the millions.

Companies including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotels.com were recently ordered to pay $21 million dollars to the city of Anaheim, California for significant back taxes, fees and penalties related to the payment of hotel occupancy fees. A similar suit in San Antonio, Texas required 11 of the largest online booking companies including Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and Orbitz to pay $20.6 million dollars.

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