Linden, NJ Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

L. 2003, c. 114, which lets a New Jersey municipality tax hotel and motel room rent at a uniform rate. A. 54:32B-3. Under § 23-3, the City tax stacks on top of any other tax or fee any governmental entity already imposes on the hotel room, so it is additional to, not a substitute for, the state's own sales tax on the room. Section 23-4 exempts rent paid by a purchaser, user or consumer who is itself exempt from sales tax under the Sales and Use Tax Act, tracking the state exemption rather than creating a separate local one.

Section 23-6 places collection responsibility on whoever collects the rent from the hotel or motel guest: that person is personally liable for the tax collected or required to be collected, has the same right to collect it from the customer as if it were part of the rent, and the City's Chief Financial Officer must be joined as a party in any court action to collect an unpaid tax. Section 23-5 bars a vendor from absorbing or assuming the tax on the customer's behalf, from advertising that the tax will not be separately charged, and from promising to refund it; every day a prohibited representation continues is a separate offense. A copy of Chapter 23 must be sent to the State Treasurer and to every hotel or motel located in Linden under § 23-7.