Flagler County tax collector says majority of short-term rentals identified; enforcement, penalties emphasized

Shelley Edmondson, Flagler County tax collector, told the Flagler County Tourist Development Council on Aug. 12 that county staff are identifying and pursuing short-term vacation rentals that are not remitting the local tourist development tax.

Edmondson said the county has about 1,600 active short-term rental accounts and uses an internet‑monitoring service, Granicus, that has identified more than 3,000 online rental listings and matched roughly 92.8% of those listings to street addresses. "We know who they are," Edmondson said, adding that the county has identified more than 1,400 addresses from the scraping effort and that some properties may have more than one account or management‑company accounts that complicate counts.

The tax collector reviewed how the tax is collected and enforced. She said the local tourist development tax is a state tax collected at the local level and that the county requires short‑term rental operators to obtain a local business tax receipt and open a tourist tax account. "If they're renting, they must pay," Edmondson said.

Edmondson told the council that collection and enforcement are governed by Florida law and listed specific statutory references. She said failing to charge the required fee can be punishable as a first‑degree misdemeanor, failing to file a return is a third‑degree felony, and retaining collected tourist development tax can be treated as theft of state funds. She described tax warrants that create liens on property and said the county can pursue revocation of a corporation's charter when warranted.

Edmondson outlined the county's compliance workflow: internet scraping to locate listings, outreach letters, assessments and—if necessary—tax warrants that attach to the property. She emphasized that tax warrants follow the property, not the person, and that new owners can be liable for outstanding warrants. The tax collector also described an anonymous reporting feature on the county website and said tax bills mailed in the coming months will include reminders about short‑term rental registration and tax obligations.

Council members asked for clarifications about differences between the number of online listings and registered accounts. Edmondson explained that a single physical property can have multiple online listings (Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, homes.com and others), and some listings require manual matching of photos and histories.

Edmondson said Flagler County does not have a direct payment agreement with major online platforms, so the county does not receive tourist development tax payments directly from platforms such as Airbnb or VRBO. She noted that many platforms collect and remit state sales taxes (7%), which differs from the county's 5¢ (five‑penny) local tourist development tax that the county collects locally per the county's 2018 ordinance.

Edmondson closed by stressing outreach and enforcement: the county will continue community education, include notices in tax bills, and pursue assessments and warrants where operators do not register or remit tax.

The council did not take a vote on enforcement policy at the Aug. 12 meeting because it lacked quorum; Edmondson said enforcement activities are ongoing at the staff level and that unresolved collection matters will continue through the county's compliance process.