Apex, NC Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

Short-term rentals in Apex sit inside Wake County's Room Occupancy Tax (ROT) framework, levied by the Wake County Board of Commissioners in December 1991 under state-enabling legislation. The 6% Wake County Room Occupancy Tax applies to the gross receipts derived from the rental of any room, lodging, or accommodation furnished by a hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp, or 'similar place' within Wake County - language Wake County explicitly extends to rooms or houses rented through websites including Airbnb, VRBO, Vrbo, Windu, and similar platforms. The tax applies to the full gross receipt including any cleaning fees, pet fees, or guest service fees. Stays of 90 or more continuous days to the same person are exempt, as are accommodations furnished by nonprofit charitable, educational, benevolent, or religious organizations when used to further their nonprofit purpose. Wake County administers the tax through its Tax Administration office; operators must register, file monthly returns, and remit the tax even when the platform handles collection (the operator remains responsible if the platform does not remit). Stacked on top is the NC sales tax framework. North Carolina G.S. 105-164.4(a)(3) imposes the 4.75% state sales tax on the gross receipts from accommodations rented for fewer than 90 continuous days. Wake County adds a 2.0% local sales tax (the standard combined Wake County state-and-local sales tax rate is 7.25% for general retail, though sales-and-use-rate sources occasionally cite 7.30% reflecting a 0.5% special district component that does not apply to all transactions). For accommodations specifically, the operative combined state-and-local rate is 6.75% (4.75% state + 2.0% county). The NC Department of Revenue administers state sales tax registration and remittance under NC G.S. Chapter 105. Wake County does not separately impose a municipal occupancy tax inside the Town of Apex; the 6% Wake County ROT plus the 6.75% combined state-and-local sales tax on accommodations is the operative lodging-tax stack, producing a combined effective burden of approximately 12.75% on each Apex STR stay. Airbnb has a North Carolina tax-collection agreement under which the platform collects and remits the 4.75% state sales tax and the 2.0% county local sales tax (plus the Wake County 6% Room Occupancy Tax in most jurisdictions where Airbnb has a county-level agreement) on platform-booked stays. VRBO has similar arrangements. Operators should verify their specific platform's tax-collection status for Apex/Wake County on the platform's tax-collection support article. Off-platform direct bookings remain the operator's responsibility for the full ~12.75% stack: operator registers with both Wake County Tax Administration (for ROT) and NC Department of Revenue (for state and local sales tax) and remits both monthly. Operators who fail to register or remit face Wake County and NC Department of Revenue interest, penalties, and collection actions including tax liens. North Carolina written-lease rules generally apply to rentals of fewer than 90 days, supplementing the tax collection requirements.