OCA Audit Reports

Issued: June 2007

SUMMARY

This is the fourth audit conducted in this series of hotel occupancy tax audits.

In this Phase IV audit we identified 15 hotels to audit. Tax deficiencies identified total $103,876, not including penalty and interest. We identified 2 hotels out of the 15 audited that were fully in compliance with City ordinance and had no tax deficiency. This small compliance rate of 13 percent is similar to our experience in earlier phases of this series of audits.

In Phase I we identified improvement areas for internal City processes. $695,000 in revenue was identified.

In Phases II and III we completed 60 hotel field audits and identified $772,000 in revenue.

The value of continuing these audits lies in the additional revenue collected combined with improved overall tax compliance rates for the hotel industry in Austin.

Recommended revisions to the City Hotel Occupancy Tax ordinance made in previous audit reports are under consideration by the Controller’s Office. These revisions could help the hotel industry in Austin do a better job of collecting and remitting the hotel occupancy tax.

Download the entire text of our Hotel Occupancy Tax: Collection and Remittance Audit, Phase IV report (Size: 58.8 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files. Or request a hard copy of this audit report, No. AU07109, by submitting this audit report request form.

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