Aliso Viejo, CA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Aliso Viejo Municipal Code § 3.06.020 sets the transient occupancy tax at 10 percent of the rent charged by the operator, owed by each transient for the privilege of occupancy. Under § 3.06.010 a transient is a person entitled to occupancy for 30 consecutive calendar days or less, and "hotel" covers inns, motels, tourist homes, lodging houses, rooming houses, apartment houses, dormitories, clubs and similar structures occupied by transients. Excluded are hospitals and care facilities, jails, housing owned by a school and used exclusively for its students and employees, housing used exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes by a tax-exempt organization, government employee housing, employer camps, and uses exempt under California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 7280(b). The operator carries the burden of proving an exclusion.

Exemptions from the tax itself are narrow. Section 3.06.030 bars the tax only on persons or occupancies beyond the city's power to tax and on officers or employees of a foreign government exempt under federal law or treaty, and no exemption is granted unless it is claimed when the rent is collected, under penalty of perjury, on the tax administrator's form. Operators must state the tax separately from the rent and cannot advertise that they will absorb it or leave it off the bill (§ 3.06.040).

Administration runs through the city manager as tax administrator. Each place of business needs a transient occupancy registration permit, which must be posted conspicuously (§ 3.06.050). The tax is due when the operator collects it and is delinquent if not received by the last working day of the month following each calendar month (§ 3.06.060). Quarterly returns are due by the fifteenth day after quarter end and report total rents charged, tax collected, the average number of rental units available and the number of unit nights rented (§ 3.06.070). An operator who sells or closes must notify the administrator 10 days ahead (§ 3.06.080). Net proceeds fund any lawful purpose of the city (§ 3.06.290).