York County to receive $20K in settlement

If you’ve reserved a hotel stay in South Carolina through an online booking site, you may have inadvertently skipped out on paying taxes.

Several local governments in South Carolina recently brought suit against a number of hotel sites, claiming the companies that manage web surfers’ travel destinations had failed to pay the state’s accommodations tax when they booked those trips.

Now, a settlement is being offered that could give those governments a financial boost. Because the suit was brought as a class action – meaning the cities and counties that sought back taxes were acting as representatives of all local entities in the state owed accommodations taxes – every government in the state could benefit.

On Monday, York County Council voted to accept its portion of the settlement, an estimated contribution to the county budget of $20,206.19.

The money will benefit counties based on the proportion of accommodations tax they could have expected to receive if they had been paid all along. Initially, the suit was brought by areas with large concentrations of hotels: the cities of Columbia and North Charleston and Aiken and Charleston counties.

Filed in July 2013, the suit targeted a dozen of the web’s top hotel sites, including Priceline, Hotwire, Expedia and Orbitz. The companies eventually offered a settlement, which must still go before a judge to be approved, setting aside cash for each local government in proportion to what it would have collected prior to Aug. 1, 2014.

York County was not a party to the original lawsuit, and most local governments contacted for this story said they were unaware of the lawsuit until informed they were eligible to receive the money.

“We received a proposal of the settlement, and we could either opt out or take a proportionate settlement,” said Michael Kendree, the York County attorney.

As a member of the class covered by the suit, York County didn’t need to take any action to collect the money, but Kendree still took the issue to county council for approval because council members had the option to either decline the money or opt-out in favor of launching their own suit against the hotel sites. But the council ultimately decided to accept the proposal.

“It’s seemingly a fair settlement,” Kendree said.

Other area governments also could collect their piece of the pie. Lancaster County Administrator Steve Willis has scheduled discussion of the settlement for a county council meeting later in the month, although he doesn’t expect the county to receive much.

“There are only two hotels in the county,” he said. “It’s not going to be millions of bucks.”

Likewise, Chester County Attorney Joan Winters said Chester County Council will likely take up the matter as well, although she estimates the rural county’s share of the settlement could be “less than $1,000.” Cities are also eligible to receive a settlement, but Rock Hill spokeswoman Katie Quinn said the city’s attorney has not made a recommendation to pursue a piece of the settlement.

This story was originally published March 7, 2015 at 10:56 PM with the headline "York County to receive $20K in settlement."