Winnebago County, IL Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Winnebago County's Hotel Tax Ordinance, Ch. 78, Art. IV, taxes short-term lodging across the unincorporated county at 5% of gross rental receipts for each 24-hour period or portion of one, under Sec. 78-84. The tax applies only outside cities, villages, and incorporated towns that already impose their own hotel tax under 65 ILCS 5/8-3-14, so it reaches unincorporated-area lodging specifically. Sec. 78-83 defines 'hotel' broadly: any building where the public obtains living quarters, sleeping, or housekeeping accommodations for consideration, expressly including inns, motels, tourist homes or courts, lodging houses, rooming houses, and apartment houses.

Anyone occupying a room for 30 or more consecutive days counts as a 'permanent resident' and is excluded from the taxable gross rental receipts. Sec. 78-85 places ultimate liability for the tax on the operator, who may pass it through to the renter as a separately stated charge, combinable with the state Hotel Operators' Occupation Tax under 35 ILCS 145/1 et seq. Sec. 78-86 caps that pass-through at the ordinance's own rate: operators cannot charge renters more than the 5% actually imposed. Under Sec. 78-87, operators must remit collected tax to the county treasurer by the last day of each month, along with a report of gross receipts from all renters, including permanent residents. Sec. 78-88 requires operators to keep complete daily books and records of gross rental receipts to support that reporting.