It's worded very poorly, too, such as "The onus is on hosts, Airbnb argues", as if there's some debate over whether 1099 contractors are responsible for their own taxes.

I'm sure local governments would love to collect a big check from Airbnb instead of hunting down thousands of tax-dodgers; but doing local tax collection authorities' work for them isn't exactly Airbnb's responsibility.

>doing local tax collection authorities' work for them isn't exactly Airbnb's responsibility.

Not by default, sure, but nothing prevents a local government from creating a law that says, "where an organization takes commissions in connection with its marketing and/or or the facilitation of payment for short-term rentals of property within our jurisdiction, the organization is responsible for collecting any occupancy taxes associated with the transaction."[0]

[0]https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/publications/20...

Well, nothing except other laws prevent law-making institutions from creating any law. But, I think, it's not an argument in itself :-)