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

The City of Paramount taxes hotel occupancy at 10% of the rent under Paramount Municipal Code § 3.24.020. The tax is the transient's debt to the City and is extinguished only by payment to the operator or to the City. The transient pays the operator when the rent is paid, a proportionate share is paid with each installment, and any unpaid balance is due when the guest stops occupying space. If the operator is not paid, the City Clerk can require direct payment to the City Clerk.

Section 3.24.010 defines the terms. A transient is anyone entitled to occupancy for 30 consecutive calendar days or less, counting portions of calendar days as full days, and that guest stays a transient until the 30 days expire unless the operator and the occupant have a written agreement for a longer stay. A hotel is any structure or portion of one occupied or designed for occupancy by transients, and the list includes inns, motels, lodging houses, rooming houses, apartment houses, dormitories and mobile homes or house trailers at a fixed location. Rent counts all receipts, cash, credits, property and services, with no deduction.

The exemptions in § 3.24.030 reach only federal or State of California officers and employees on official business, foreign government officers exempt by federal law or treaty, and anyone the City has no power to tax. An exemption requires a claim made when rent is collected, under penalty of perjury, on a City Clerk form.

Operators state the tax separately from the rent and give each transient a receipt, and cannot advertise that the tax will be absorbed or refunded (§ 3.24.040). Each operator registers with the City Clerk within 30 days after commencing business and posts the certificate conspicuously (§ 3.24.050). Returns and remittances are due on or before the last day of the month following each calendar quarter (§ 3.24.060), collected tax is held in trust for the City, and records are kept for three years (§ 3.24.100).

Under § 17.44.195, renting a dwelling unit in a residentially developed property for fewer than 30 consecutive calendar days is prohibited, so short-term rentals are prohibited in residentially developed property in the City of Paramount.