Jessamine County, KY Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Jessamine County Code § 35.05(A)(4) creates a 3% transient room tax in all areas of Jessamine County that do not lie within the incorporated boundaries of the City of Nicholasville and the City of Wilmore. The rate is charged on the rent for every occupancy of a suite, room, cabin, lodging or campsite by any hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp, tourist cabin, campground, recreational vehicle park, or other place that regularly furnishes accommodations to transients. For an operator outside both cities, the County of Jessamine has the sole responsibility for collection and enforcement. Inside Nicholasville or Wilmore the respective city holds that role instead, so a Nicholasville inn answers to the city and not to the Fiscal Court.

The operating mechanics are in the rest of the section. Moneys collected under it are gathered on a monthly basis and kept in an account separate from all other funds and revenues. Tax collected by Jessamine County is paid over to the Commission within 30 days of collection. If the state government collects room tax and transfers it to the county or either city, the receiving government passes it on to the Commission within 30 days. The collecting entity, or an agent or employee designated in writing, is authorized to examine the books, papers and records of any accommodation business required to file a return, to test the accuracy of a return or to determine the tax due when none was filed.

One exclusion exists. Transient room taxes do not apply to renting or leasing an apartment supplied by an individual or business that regularly holds itself out as exclusively providing apartments, where an apartment is a room or set of rooms in an apartment building, fitted especially with a kitchen and leased as a dwelling for a minimum period of 30 days or more. Money from the tax funds tourism promotion and, as § 35.05(C) states, proceeds shall not be used as a subsidy in any form to any hotel, motel, or restaurant, except as provided in KRS 154.30-050(2)(a)3.c.