Portland officials and ten online travel sites are bringing their tax dispute to court.
Portland officials and ten online travel sites are bringing their tax dispute to court.
Portland officials argue that the sites are shortchanging the city on a local 11.5 percent lodging tax — to the tune of $5 million to $8 million and counting. The city warned the travel companies in December that it was coming after them.
Then last week, the companies fired back. They hired Portland law firm Stoel Rives to ask a Multnomah County judge to order Portland to quit trying to collect.
The companies — some of the best-known in the industry — are Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire, Priceline, Travelocity, TravelWeb, Hotels.com, CheapTickets.com, Lodging.com and Site59.com. Named as defendants are the city of Portland, Multnomah County and Thomas Lannom, director of the city’s Revenue Bureau.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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