Henry County, GA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Section 3-3-68 levies an excise tax of eight percent on the rental paid for occupancy of every guest room in a hotel or motel located in the county, an increase most recently amended by Ordinance No. 24-2 in April 2024 and Ordinance No. 24-4 in May 2024. Section 3-3-67 limits the tax's reach to the unincorporated areas of the county only; hotels inside McDonough, Stockbridge, Hampton or Locust Grove fall under those cities' own ordinances, not this article. Section 3-3-66 defines a taxable hotel broadly to include any lodging house, rooming house, motel, motor hotel, auto court, inn or public or private club with guest rooms rented for consideration, but excludes jails, hospitals, asylums and similar institutional buildings.

Section 3-3-70 exempts occupancy by a permanent resident, defined as anyone who has occupied, or has the right to occupy, a guest room for at least ten consecutive days before the date in question. Every operator must register with the tax commissioner under § 3-3-71 before doing business and receives a certificate of authority to collect the tax. Section 3-3-72 sets the return and payment deadline at the twentieth day of the month following each monthly rental period, with the return showing gross rent, exempt rent from permanent residents, taxable rent, and tax collected.

00, whichever is greater, for every ten-day period the tax remains unpaid; § 3-3-74 applies the same estimate-and-penalty process when an operator files no return at all.