Calaveras County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

Calaveras County Code Section 3.12.020 defines 'hotel' broadly enough to reach short-term rentals: any structure or portion of a structure occupied or intended for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, expressly including a mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location or 'other similar structure.' A 'transient' is anyone occupying space for thirty consecutive calendar days or less. Because a short-term vacation rental fits that definition, its owner or manager is an 'operator' who must collect the twelve percent transient occupancy tax imposed by Section 3.12.030 on every stay and remit it to the county tax administrator, the county tax collector.

Under Section 3.12.060, an operator of a short-term rental must register the property with the tax administrator within thirty days of the ordinance's effective date or of commencing business, obtain a transient occupancy registration certificate, and keep it posted in a conspicuous place on the premises; the certificate does not substitute for any other county permit the rental needs. Operators must state the tax separately from rent and may not advertise that they will absorb it (Section 3.12.050). Quarterly returns and full remittance are due by the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, and all tax collected is held in trust for the county until paid over (Section 3.12.070).

Records supporting the amount collected must be kept for three years for the tax administrator's inspection (Section 3.12.110). An operator who fails to collect or report can have the tax estimated and assessed by the tax administrator, with a right to a hearing and, if aggrieved, an appeal to the board of supervisors within fifteen days (Sections 3.12.090, 3.12.100).