Champaign, IL Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Champaign taxes short-term lodging under Chapter 32, Article VI of the Code of Ordinances, first adopted by Council Bill No. B. No. 2016-048, effective July 1, 2016. Section 32-82(a) sets the rate at seven percent of the rental or leasing charge for each hotel or motel room rented for each 24-hour period or any portion of one, exempting a person who works or lives in the same hotel or motel and rents a room for more than 30 consecutive days. Section 32-81 defines a taxable "hotel room or motel room" broadly as any room in a structure "kept, used or maintained as or advertised or held out to the public to be an inn, motel, hotel, apartment hotel, lodging house, dormitory or place where sleeping, rooming, office conference or exhibition accommodations are furnished for lease or rent, whether with or without meals" - language broad enough to reach lodging-style short-term rentals, not just traditional hotels.

Under Section 32-82(c) and (d), the owner, manager or operator acts as the City's trustee, must collect the tax from the renter at the time rent is paid, and must state the tax separately on the invoice or receipt. Section 32-84 requires a return filed with the Finance Director for each place of business, due on or before the fifteenth day of the month following the filing period. Unpaid tax is enforced by Section 32-85 through a City-initiated court action, and Section 32-86 routes all collected proceeds, including penalties, into the City's corporate fund.