CLEARFIELD – When someone rents a hotel room in Clearfield County, a fee equal to 3 percent of the room price is tacked on as a hotel tax.
This money then funnels through the Clearfield County Recreation and Tourism Authority with 2 percent of it for the treasurer for an administrative fee. From there, though, the money is used to promote Clearfield County.
For the most part, motels, hotels and bed and breakfasts turn over the tax, which is paid by those staying in the establishments. Sometimes, though, the appropriate forms are not filed, and the money doesn’t come in.
The Clearfield County Commissioners spoke at their meeting Tuesday about several hotels that are late in filing their reports and turning over the collected hotel tax.
Commissioners declined to say which hotels were in violation, but they did say that some of the hotels on the list are only late on filing information from the fourth quarter of 2006 while another is late filing information from quarters three and four of 2006. One motel did not file anything for 2006.
The commissioners agreed to instruct Kim Kesner, solicitor, to write letters to the motels to inform them of the requirements.
“The hotel or motel has a legal obligation to collect the tax and to account to the county for it,” Kesner said.
“The one that concerns me is the one that hasn’t filed at all in 2006,” said Mark McCracken, commissioner.
Commissioner Rex Read said that the vast majority of hotels in the county have filed the appropriate paperwork on time, and the CCRTA has an active Hotel Tax Committee comprised of hotel managers who speak up about how to use the money.
Clearfield County Controller Claudia Read suggested that the commissioners begin to enforce late fees, as suggested by last year’s audit.
According to the ordinance that enacted the tax, late filers can be subject to a late filing fee of $50 plus 9 percent per year on the amount of unpaid tax.
As for the amount the county can expect, that is not known.
“We don’t know because they haven’t filed a report,” said McCracken.