Butte County, CA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Butte County Code § 23A-3 sets the transient occupancy tax at six percent of the rent charged for any lodging in the unincorporated area, covering motels, hotels, inns, bed and breakfasts, rooming houses, mobile home parks, recreational vehicle parks, campgrounds and parking areas rented for overnight accommodations under § 23A-2(d). A guest counts as a "transient" subject to the tax whenever occupancy runs 30 consecutive calendar days or less, unless a written agreement sets a longer term; that same 30-day line is what pulls short-term rentals into the tax rather than a carve-out written for STRs specifically.

Every operator must register the lodging with the Butte County Tax Collector within 10 days of commencing business and post the resulting transient occupancy registration certificate in a conspicuous place; an operator renting only to long-term tenants can instead obtain a nontransient occupancy registration certificate under § 23A-7, stamped onto the operator's business license, which is the only recognized exemption path besides occupancies the county lacks power to tax under § 23A-4(a). Tax is collected with the rent, stated separately on the guest's receipt, and remitted with a return filed by the last day of the month after each calendar quarter closes, or on a shorter cycle the tax collector sets; records supporting the return must be kept three years under § 23A-12.

Sellers and buyers of a lodging must each notify the tax collector at least 15 days before close of escrow, and a buyer who skips that notice inherits the seller's unpaid tax liability under § 23A-18.