The state of Montana is claiming that travel booking sites like Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity have been skipping out on paying hotel taxes.  The state’s Department of Revenue intends to change that and be reimbursed for back taxes that have gone unpaid.  While Montana is the most recent state to complain that major travel booking sites haven’t paid taxes, they aren’t the first.

Last year, Florida was the first state to sue Expedia and Orbitz for failure to pay hotel taxes to the state.  The complaint accused online booking sites of collecting taxes and fees but keeping a portion of those fees as profit instead of paying them to states and cities.  Now Montana is making a similar claim.

In November, Montana filed a lawsuit against more than a dozen online travel companies. Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity were all included in the complaint.

The issue revolves around whether taxes should be calculated on what the consumer pays or on what the hotel receives for the stay.  Montana and Florida both allege that consumers are charged taxes based on what they actually pay for their stay, but the states are only receiving taxes calculated on the highly discounted rate that the online travel agencies are passing on to hotels.

With state and local governments struggling to balance budgets and continue to provide services, this may become a bigger issue across the country.  It remains to be seen if consumers will, in the end, pay higher rates for hotels in order to make up the shortfall if OTAs are required to pay out more of their profits in taxes.