There's No Room in the Inn; Hurricane Harvey filling San Angelo Hotels

SAN ANGELO, TX -- Virtually All San Angelo hotels are almost full in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

UPDATED 8/25/2017 8:25 p.m.  

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has suspended collection of State and Local Hotel Occupancy taxes for the duration of the Hurricane Harvey emergency.  "Governor Greg Abbott suspended the collection of all state and local hotel occupancy taxes for persons affected by Hurricane Harvey.  The tax waiver is from August 23 to September 6, 2017. 

The Comptroller's office has information for taxpayers affected by the storm.  For more information call 800-252-5555.

UPDATED 8/25/2017 9:00 p.m.

From the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association comes a description of the rules for gaining Hotel Occupancy Tax exclusion. The rule is only valid for residents of certain counties from day before yesterday (Aug. 25) until Sept. 7. 

"The Governor’s proclamation means that effective August 23, 2017 until September 6, 2017, hotels should ask each hotel guest at check-in or at check-out if they are evacuating from one of the following disaster-prone counties noted in Governor Abbott’s initial disaster proclamation.  These counties are: Aransas, Austin, Bee, Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Fort Bend, Galveston, Goliad, Gonzales, Harris, Jackson, Jefferson, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kleberg, Lavaca, Liberty, Live Oak, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Victoria, Waller, Wharton, and Wilson.

"If the guest is from one of the above noted counties or is a documented relief worker, the hotel should provide the guest a hotel tax exemption certificate to fill out and the hotel should not apply local or state hotel occupancy taxes to that guest’s room night charges for the Governor’s declared hotel tax exemption period.  If the hotel’s electronic billing system does not allow suspension of the hotel tax charges, a refund of the state and local hotel tax charges should be provided to the guest upon checkout.  As noted above, each guest who is given this exemption from hotel tax should be asked to complete the standard hotel tax exemption certificate which most hotels have on site or can access through this link: https://comptroller.texas.gov/forms….

"On the hotel tax exemption certificate form, the guest should:

• At the top of the form where it asks for the “Name of the exempt entity,” the guest should write in their personal name, and their home address including the county. 
• At the bottom of the form, the guest should check the box for “Exempt by Other Federal or State Law and write in:  “Hurricane Harvey Evacuee from ------- (fill in) County.”   If the guest is a relief worker, they should instead indicate “Relief Worker” and include a signed statement from their agency indicating that they were dispatched due to the relief effort. 

"Hotels will also later document the provision of these exemptions in the hotel’s monthly or quarterly hotel tax remittance to the local and state government," stated a THLA press release.

This is a developing story.  We’ll have more as that information becomes available.