{"id":206439,"date":"2026-03-06T00:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206439\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T00:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:44:06","slug":"airbnb-sued-san-francisco-over-a-120-million-tax-bill-it-didnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206439\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb sued San Francisco over a $120 million tax bill. It didn\u2019t work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">San Francisco has reached a zero-dollar settlement with Airbnb over a tax refund lawsuit that drew protests, <a href=\"https:\/\/sfstandard.com\/2025\/10\/08\/airbnb-boycott-san-francisco-tax-lawsuit\/\" data-post-id=\"8fcb6305-aeb5-4c07-b8b0-ed8cb2589a49\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a labor-led boycott<\/a> campaign, and <a href=\"https:\/\/sfstandard.com\/2025\/04\/24\/nancy-pelosi-airbnb-lawsuit-san-francisco-lurie\/\" data-post-id=\"8b31c778-111f-46c6-9446-274a136321fd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">calls from prominent Democrats<\/a> for the company to stand down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">The Board of Supervisors\u2019 government audit and oversight committee will vote on the settlement Tuesday. The <a href=\"https:\/\/sfgov.legistar.com\/View.ashx?M=F&amp;ID=15286275&amp;GUID=EEFAE0D3-EC28-40B0-BF4F-F36202221FD5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">resolution (opens in new tab)<\/a> authorizes the city to resolve the case with no money changing hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">Airbnb\u2019s lawsuit, filed in 2024, sought a refund of $120 million in business taxes it says were overpaid. Critics claimed the battle has tied up two-thirds of that amount in the city\u2019s litigation fund, preventing it from being used for public services amid budget shortfalls. Airbnb contended that the city\u2019s gross receipts tax and Proposition C, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spur.org\/voter-guide\/2018-11\/sf-prop-c-business-tax-homeless-services#:~:text=C%20ranges%20from%200.16%20percent,0.175%20percent%20to%200.69%20percent.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">the homelessness services tax (opens in new tab)<\/a>, were misapplied to the company from 2019 to 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">City Attorney David Chiu described the outcome as a victory for San Francisco taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">\u201dWe are pleased to have reached an agreement that, above all, protects the public\u2019s money,\u201d Chiu said in a statement. \u201cOur office works tirelessly to defend San Francisco\u2019s tax laws and ensure all taxpayers pay their fair share. This settlement achieves both goals while putting this dispute behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">An Airbnb spokesperson said the company was \u201cpleased to reach an agreement,\u201d adding, \u201cWe\u2019re committed to ensuring San Francisco remains a great place to live and work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">The SF Labor Council, which had called for a boycott of Airbnb due to the lawsuit, expressed relief. \u201cThis settlement means that our boycott was justified and we are very glad to see Airbnb finally paying their fair share,\u201d Executive Director Kim Tavaglione said. \u201cAirbnb\u2019s greedy tax avoidance has been costing the city, but now this money is freed up to support essential services for San Franciscans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-block article-body text-left\">The majority of the $120 million paid by Airbnb is expected to flow to the general fund. The mayor, controller, and budget and legislative analyst are expected to release an updated five-year revenue and spending forecast March 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco has reached a zero-dollar settlement with Airbnb over a tax refund lawsuit that drew protests, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[24812,17358,1016,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-206439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-airbnb","9":"tag-city-attorney","10":"tag-lawsuits","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}