Short-term rentals in Athens, explained properly.

Sec. 18-371 defines a party as one or more persons who as a single group rent under a single reservation or payment. The definition leaves out dwelling units rented to the same party for more than 30 continuous days and hotels, motels, assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, extended stay facilities, bed and breakfasts, manufactured home parks, group homes, nursing homes, rooming or boarding houses and recreational vehicle parks, as those terms are defined in the city's zoning ordinance (which was not read).

Sec. 18-373 lists five items: (1) the name, signature, address and telephone number of the owner and operator; (2) the name, address and telephone number of any property manager or firm associated with operating the rental, if different; (3) the name, address and telephone number, including a number reachable 24 hours a day, of a local contact person; (4) the address of the rental; and (5) an affidavit attesting that there are no delinquent lodging tax liabilities (or related liens) or municipal business license tax liabilities for the rental or the property, or documentation that the operator is in the process of bringing the rental into compliance.

Sec. 18-374 (Ord. No. 2024-2348, October 28, 2024) applies to owners and operators of existing short term residential rental locations that reported under Sec. 18-373 and brought their business license tax and lodging tax liabilities into compliance during the 30 day reporting period, or initiated compliance efforts as determined by the mayor.

Section 40-26-1 of the Code of Alabama levies a privilege or license tax on every person in the business of renting or furnishing rooms, lodging or accommodations to transients in any hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp, tourist cabin or any other place in which rooms, lodgings or accommodations are regularly furnished to transients for a consideration. The rate is 5% of the charge in the 16 counties of the Alabama mountain lakes area (Blount, Cherokee, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan and Winston) and 4% in every other county, and the charge includes any charge for personal property and services furnished in the room. The tax does not apply to rooms, lodgings or accommodations supplied for 180 continuous days or more. The Alabama Department of Revenue says lodgings tax is collected through an account at My Alabama Taxes, and that counties and cities may add their own lodgings taxes of between 1% and 13%, some collected by the Department, some by third-party administrators and some by the local government itself. Local lodgings taxes are shown on each place's page.

Section 40-26-1.1 of the Code of Alabama (the Alabama Tourism Tax Protection Act of 2024, Act 2024-334) says an accommodations intermediary, meaning a business other than the owner that facilitates a lodging transaction and charges the guest a room or accommodations fee it keeps as compensation, must collect and remit the state lodgings tax and parallel local levies for transactions on or after January 1, 2025. The tax is charged on the room charge, the full retail price the guest pays including any fees. When the intermediary handles the booking for an accommodations provider (an owner with an active lodgings tax account who collects and remits the tax), the tax collected may be remitted to the provider if an executed written agreement says who remits it, and the intermediary is then not liable for tax the provider fails to remit. The intermediary must state the tax separately on the bill. Where the owner has hired a licensed professional property management company, that company is the merchant of record. The Department of Revenue's notice describes the same rules. Which local lodgings taxes a platform collects in a given place is not stated in these sources; check with the platform and the local tax office.

Section 40-26-1.1(g) requires every accommodations intermediary and accommodations provider to submit an annual report, in a form set by the Department of Revenue, listing the physical address of each accommodation rented or furnished for more than 14 days during the previous year; the report is confidential taxpayer information. Exempt are licensed professional property management companies that collect and remit the state lodgings tax (or manage homes leased for a month or more as the tenant's principal residence), hotels that collect and remit the tax, tourism marketing organizations funded by the tax, and marina, tent camping and RV providers that collect and remit it. The Department of Revenue's notice describes the same reporting rule and exemptions.