Taking a page from Canton’s recent experience with restaurants, where an audit identified more than $92,000 in drink-related revenues owed, Woodstock has retained the Georgia Municipal Association to audit five hotels for compliance with the local hotel-motel tax.
The Woodstock City Council agreed to pay the association $500 per hotel plus another $500 per special field audit, if called for. The association would review 36 months of lodging revenues, analyze hotel returns for anything unusual or suspicious, and notify the city of properties in need of closer scrutiny.
If a field audit is necessary, the association would visit a hotel, collect information on the number of rooms, occupancy rate, property condition and other factors, and review tax returns, bank statements and other records. It would then submit substantiating documents to aid the city in recovering taxes due.
In Canton, the Municipal Association found 16 of 30 restaurants owed more than $92,000 in total unpaid taxes, penalties and interest on under-reported mixed-drink sales.
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