Business travelers face the highest taxes in Chicago, New
York and Boston, but Portland, Ore., ranks highest as the city with the most
taxes that specifically target travelers, according to research released on
Thursday by the National Business Travel Association Foundation and Concur.
The study compiled data on taxes targeting car rental, hotel
stays and meals in the top 50 U.S. travel destination cities. It found that, on
average, travelers to those cities pay taxes 56 percent above the general sales
tax level, and in Portland's case, 144 percent above the general tax burden.
Many of these taxes fund projects unrelated to travel,
according to the study.
"The business and travel communities are increasingly
concerned about the negative impact that taxes targeting travelers have on the
greater travel industry and local economies," NBTA executive director and
COO Michael McCormick said in a statement. "Rest assured, companies are taking
notice of these unfair burdens when determining how and where to spend their
business travel, meetings and events dollars."
Besides Portland, the cities with the most travel-specific
taxes above the general sales tax are Boston, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and New
York. All five locales with the lowest travel tax rate are in California:
Orange County, San Jose, Burbank, San Diego and Ontario.
When the overall tax burden—travel taxes combined with sales
taxes—is considered, however, Portland actually has the third-lowest tax burden
for travelers, according to the survey. Two Florida cities, Fort Lauderdale and
Fort Myers, have the lowest overall tax burden. Detroit and Honolulu round out
the top five for the lowest overall traveler tax burden.
Travelers pay the highest overall taxes in Chicago, New
York, Boston, Seattle and Minneapolis, the survey reported.