National Ski Club Newsflash

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

VERMONT WANTS TO COLLECT SALES TAX ON SKI HOUSES

STOWE MOUNTAIN RESORT IS FOR SALE

MARMOT BASIN’S NEW HIGH SPEED QUAD

YELLOWSTONE CLUB IS SOLD

SOLDIER MOUNTAIN LODGE TO BE REBUILT

AIRLINE BAG FEES ARE GETTING BIGGER

UTAH’S FIRST NEW DISTILLERY IN 80 YEARS

WE NEED INFORMATION ABOUT?????

VERMONT SEEKING BACK SALES TAXES ON SKI SHARE HOUSE RENTALS

   With the down economy, some states are straining to find more income sources.  Here’s one of Vermont’s "solutions" (which they claim to have have been pursuing this for over a decade).    According a Rutland Herald article dated May 8, 2009, The Vermont Department of Taxes has sent tax bills to ski-share-house renters for thousands of dollars each. The tax department's compliance division began issuing notices to both homeowners and lessees of private ski shares in Killington in late April -- saying that they must register as a business so they can be billed the state's 9% meal and room taxes.

 According to the state, the meal and room tax does not apply to long-term leasing relationships, but short-term renting does apply and some ski-share lessees were asked to submit financial information and the date they began renting, while others received bills ranging from $6,000 to $32,000.

The state’s tax law says that, a "hotel is any establishment which holds itself out to the public by offering sleeping accommodations for a consideration".    One example cited by the Herald was Thomas Wall of New York City, who has rented a chalet to about a dozen of his friends for the past four years for the ski season.  He just received a bill from the state last month for more than $6,000 in back meal and room taxes -- just for the past 2 years.

   Could this principle be applied to ski club lodges? Probably not, but it would probably be a good idea for those ski clubs with lodges in Vermont (and perhaps any other state) to get legal advice or to at least check the status of their state sales tax position....editor.

Our thanks to Bill LeSuer, of the Metropolitan New York Ski Council, for alerting us to this issue.

STOWE IS FOR SALE

Stowe Mountain Resort’s owner, AIG, now known as AIU Holdings, Ltd. is selling the resort although the asking price has not been announced.  According to the Stowe Reporter, the town government’s 2008 tax valuuation of property owned by AIG Stowe Holdings at just under $100 million.  AIG’s founder, Cornelius Vander Starr, also founded the Mt. Mansfield Co., parent company of Stowe.

MARMOT BUILDING THE LONGEST HIGH SPEED CHAIRLIFT IN THE ALBERTA ROCKIES!

Marmot Basin is installing a 2.3 km long (That’s almost a mile and a half!) high speed quad  chairlift this summer. It will rise almost 2,000 vertical feet in just over 7 minutes and will be the longest high speed chair in Alberta’s Canadian Rockies.

YELLOWSTONE CLUB SOLD

Boston based CrossHarbor, a private equity company, has purchased Montana’s Yellowstone Club, a private ski resort open only to millionaires that is linked to the neighbouring Big Sky and Moonlight basin, creating arguably North America’s largest lift-linked ski areas. The new owners  say that existing agreements with club members will remain in force.

SOLDIER MOUNTAIN LODGE TO BE REBUILT

After their day lodge burned late last season, Idaho’s Soldier Mountain Resort is starting to  rebuild its base lodge and plans to re-open for the 2009-10 season.  The primarily day ski area, on 1,150 acres with 1,400 foot of vertical -- plus another 1,500 acres for snowcat skiing -- is just 55 miles southwest of Sun Valley and is owned by actor Bruce Willis.

AIRLINE BAG FEES BIG & GETTING BIGGER

United Airlines has increased its checked baggage fee to $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second bag -- but, if you pay the bag fees online, you get a $5 discount -- or back to their original price for checked bags.

The airlines began charging bag fees after the price of oil syrocketed and they’re still trying to recoup their losses.  It’s working very well so far -- as the airine industry collected $1.1 billion on checked bag fees last year, with American Airlines alone bagging $278 million for bags in 2008.

UTAH’S FIRST DISTILLERY IN 80 YEARS

Utah’s first distillery since Prohibition will open its doors in Park City in July 2009 and will be located in a renovated 100-year-old livery stable near the base of Town Lift on Park Avenue. The High West Distillery will be a ski-in/ski-out saloon and restaurant that will feature craft vodkas, whiskeys and a small-plate menu.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ABOUT:

The National Ski Club Newsletter is looking for stories about ski clubs who have been successful in attracting younger new members.  If you have a success story, please e-mail it to wilbanks@ski-club.net.

We are also trying to find out what percentage of ski club members have passports.  Has any club out there done a survey on the subject? If you have done such a survey, please send the results to wilbanks@ski-club.net.