Boone County, IN Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Boone County Code Section 34.45, adopted by Ord. 93-13 in 1993, imposes an innkeeper's tax on every hotel, motel or inn in the county that rents rooms, lodgings or accommodations for stays of less than 30 days. The rate is 5% of the gross retail income derived from lodging income only, charged in addition to Indiana's state gross retail tax under I.C. 6-2.5. Two carve-outs keep the tax off longer stays: a room rented for 30 days or more, and an apartment or residence let on anything less than a month-to-month tenancy, both fall outside the tax's reach.

Businesses covered by the section had to begin collecting the tax on December 1, 1993, and every collector must report and remit the tax monthly to the Boone County Treasurer on county-approved forms, no later than 20 days after the end of the month the tax was collected. Indiana Code 6-2.5's provisions on rights, duties, liabilities, procedures, penalties, definitions and administration apply to the tax except where they conflict with Section 34.45 itself or the Treasurer's own requirements, so the state gross retail tax machinery backs up county enforcement.

Misusing the money is a serious matter: any entity, person, corporation or business combination that receives innkeeper's tax funds and knowingly uses them for a purpose the section does not permit commits a Class D felony under Indiana law, a criminal exposure rather than a mere civil penalty. The section sits under Chapter 34's tax provisions within Title III, Administration, operating as a straightforward county revenue measure on short-term lodging income.