Atlanta Hotel Sales Tax Audit
If you are a hotel owner in Atlanta, get ready to be held liable for a larger than usual sales tax obligation. If you are renting a room from an Atlanta area hotel, then get ready to shell out some extra dollars for your hotel stay.
A 15% tax will be added onto your hotel or motel bill within the city of Atlanta and Fulton County (8% sales tax plus 7% room tax); the rates listed below do not include that tax.
Effective July 1, 2015, a $5 hotel-motel fee is imposed on each calendar night a hotel room is rented in Georgia.
As with all things related to taxes and fees, the devil is in the details. For example, the fee no longer applies once the rental of the room becomes an extended stay rental of 31 consecutive nights or more (though it does apply to the first 30 days). Another example: the fee does notapply to complimentary hotel rooms but it does apply to hotel rooms provided to hotel employees (at no charge), “if the rooms must be included in the employee’s wages for purposes of federal income tax.”
What is a hotel or a motel? Does this include a bed and breakfast or Airbnb accommodation?
- Hotel room is defined as a room (or suite of conjoined rooms offered as a single accommodation) “(i) in a hotel (ii) that is used to provide private sleeping accommodations to paying customers and (iii) that typically includes linen or housekeeping service. A hotel room is usually occupied by transients or travelers who do not enjoy an exclusive right or privilege with respect to the room, but instead merely have an agreement for the private use or possession of the room. A room is a ‘hotel room’ only if the customer has the right to exclude other customers from the room.”
- In a buy two nights, get one free situation (or similar), the fee applies to all nights, not only nights paid for by the customer.
- The fee does not apply to stays on or after July 1 if payment took place prior to July 1.
- The fee is not subject to sales tax if it is separately stated. It is subject to sales tax if it is not separately stated.
If you have a car, be sure to consider the price of parking in the hotel garage at an average of $25 per overnight.
Atlanta Hotel Sales Tax Audit
