Waterloo, IA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Waterloo City Code section 1-8A-1, part of title 1's Hotel and Motel Tax article, imposes a hotel and motel tax at a rate of seven percent (7%) upon the gross receipts from renting any room, apartment, or sleeping quarters in a hotel, motel, inn, public lodging house, rooming house, or tourist court, or in any place where sleeping accommodations are furnished to transient guests for rent, whether or not meals are included. The tax applies only within Waterloo's corporate boundaries and has been in continuous effect since April 1, 1981, following notice to the state director of revenue and finance; it remains in force until the city council terminates it by ordinance.

Section 1-8A-2 defines taxable "renting and rent" to include any direct or indirect charge for a room or sleeping quarters, but exempts gross receipts from a room rented by the same person for more than thirty-one (31) consecutive days. Under section 1-8A-3, the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance administers the tax alongside the state's own retail sales tax, using state tax forms, and section 1-8A-5 bars the city from requiring any local tax permit beyond the state sales tax permit issued under Iowa Code section 422.53.

Section 1-8A-7 credits the revenue to a local transient guest tax fund remitted to the city at least quarterly; after the first $300,000.00 collected repays bonded debt issued for the Lost Island theme park project, the remainder is split fifty percent (50%) to Experience Waterloo for tourism promotion, twenty percent (20%) to the Waterloo Convention Center, ten percent (10%) at the city council's discretion, and twenty percent (20%) toward recreation, culture, conventions, and entertainment.