NEWS: San Diego County Is Leaving $10 Million a Year on the Table. Here's the Simple Fix.
'
“Imagine your neighbor skipped paying a tax that you pay faithfully every year, and the county's response was to shrug. Now imagine hundreds of your neighbors doing it, year after year, to the tune of $10 million annually. That is exactly what is happening right now with short-term vacation rentals in San Diego County and fixing it does not require a single new tax, a new law, or a new bureaucracy. It requires a Treasurer-Tax Collector who knows how money actually moves.”
“Here are the facts. In the unincorporated areas of our county, the places the County Treasurer-Tax Collector is directly responsible for, guests at vacation rentals pay an 8 percent Transient Occupancy Tax, the same “hotel tax” travelers pay everywhere. Last fiscal year, roughly 1,200 registered short-term rental operators remitted about $9.5 million in these taxes. But county officials estimate another 700 or so properties are operating without registering at all, costing taxpayers approximately $10 million every single year in revenue that is already legally owed.”
“Let that sink in. The county is collecting less than half of what it should. Not because anyone raised or lowered a tax rate, but because our collection system was built for a world before Airbnb and Vrbo. It relies on individual hosts to voluntarily register, calculate their own taxes, and mail in payments. The honest majority does it. Hundreds of others simply don't, and the county spends staff time and your money chasing them one by one.”
“There is a proven solution, and it costs the county nothing. It is called a Voluntary Collection Agreement. Under these agreements, the big booking platforms, Airbnb and Vrbo, automatically collect the tax from the guest at the moment of booking and send it directly to the county. No self-reporting. No chasing checks. No advantage for the operator who hides while the rule follower pays. Counties across California, including San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, and Madera, have used these agreements successfully for years. San Diego County, one of the largest tourism economies in America, still has not signed them. As a CPA with more than 40 years of experience, I find that inexcusable. As your next Treasurer-Tax Collector, I will pursue these agreements immediately.”
“So why should a working family in Santee, Fallbrook, Lakeside, or Spring Valley care about a hotel tax loophole? Because $10 million a year is not an abstraction. It is real services your family uses.”
“Do the math with me. The starting salary for a San Diego County Sheriff's deputy is about $88,000 a year. Ten million dollars covers the starting salaries of more than 110 new deputies patrolling our communities. Prefer parks? The county's recent playground makeover in Lakeside cost about $1.75 million, covering new equipment, design, and construction. Ten million dollars funds five to six complete park playground renovations every single year, forever. And here is the kicker: county policy already ties this very tax to the Community Enhancement Program, the grants that support local museums, festivals, chambers of commerce, and community events in every corner of the county. Right now, that program distributes only about $1 million per supervisorial district. Collecting what is already owed would nearly triple it.”
“That is money for your kids' ballfields, your community's fire safety fairs, and deputies on your streets, all without raising taxes on a single San Diegan by a single penny. The guests staying in these rentals are supposed to be paying it already. The only question is whether the county bothers to collect it.”
“This is what I mean when I say the Treasurer-Tax Collector's office needs a financial professional, not a politician. The office manages billions of your dollars. It deserves someone who reads the ledgers, finds the leaks, and plugs them. The vacation rental loophole is one leak. I promise you it is not the only one. I have spent four decades doing exactly this kind of work: finding inefficiencies, protecting every dollar, and delivering results. San Diego County taxpayers deserve nothing less. Let's stop leaving $10 million a year on the table.”
Written by Shirley Nakawatase, CPA | October 7, 2026 | Candidate for San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector
Comments