Mason County, WA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

In unincorporated Mason County, the Board of County Commissioners imposes a special excise tax of four percent on the sale of or charge made for furnishing lodging subject to tax under RCW 82.03, per Mason County Code § 3.24.010, adopted under RCW 67.28.180 and RCW 67.28.181(1). The tax reaches hotels, motels, vacation rentals and other short-term lodging operators in the Belfair and Allyn urban growth areas, the Shelton urban growth area outside city limits, and rural North Mason and Hood Canal communities, wherever the county rather than the City of Shelton holds taxing authority.

Mason County Code § 3.24.020 defines the terms that frame how the tax is spent: 'tourism' covers economic activity resulting from tourists, including sales of overnight lodging, meals, tours, gifts or souvenirs; 'tourism promotion' covers advertising and publicizing the county to attract and welcome tourists, developing strategies to expand tourism, operating tourism promotion agencies, and funding marketing of special events and festivals designed to attract tourists; and a 'tourist' is a person traveling from a place of residence for business, pleasure, recreation, education, arts, heritage or culture.

Mason County Code § 3.24.040 requires every dollar collected to be receipted into a special fund in the county treasury and used solely to pay the cost of tourism promotion, or of acquiring or operating tourism-related facilities, defined as real or tangible property with a usable life of three or more years, or property built with volunteer labor, that supports tourism, performing arts, or tourist activities. The county may also, under RCW 39.34, pool this revenue with other jurisdictions for a multi-jurisdictional tourism-related facility. The chapter itself prints no separate local penalty clause; collection and administration ride on the state framework in RCW 67.28.180 and .181.