Auburn, AL Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Auburn's lodging tax lives in Article VIII of Chapter 12. Sec. 12-175 defines a 'transient' as anyone renting a room or lodging for less than 30 continuous days, and applies to hotels, motels, inns, apartment houses, condominiums, tourist camps, tourist cabins, and mobile or modular homes that regularly rent to transients for stays under 180 consecutive days. Sec. 12-176 levies the tax at 7 percent of the room charge, including charges for personal property and services furnished with the room, though amounts already required to be taxed under the state sales tax statute (Code of Ala.

Sec. ) are excluded from the computation. One-seventh of everything the city collects is passed through to the Auburn-Opelika Convention and Visitors Bureau to fund its operations, and the 7 percent city tax stacks on top of, rather than replaces, the state's own lodging tax under Code of Ala. Sec. 40-26-1 et seq. Sec. 12-177 requires monthly filing: every operator must report gross proceeds and pay the tax due to the city manager by the 20th of the month following the month the tax accrued.

Operators on a credit basis may defer reporting credit rentals until collected, per Sec. 12-178, and every operator must also file a verified annual return within 30 days after the calendar year ends reconciling monthly payments against the year's total liability, per Sec. 12-179. Records of gross proceeds must be kept for two years and are open to city manager inspection under Sec. 12-180.