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

Hawthorne Municipal Code Section 17.74.060(C) requires every short-term rental permittee to "procure a transient occupancy tax registration certificate and both collect and remit, pursuant to Chapter 3.40, all transient occupancy taxes due." Chapter 3.40 sets that tax at twelve percent: Section 3.40.050 states "each transient is subject to a tax in the amount of twelve percent of the rent charged by the operator," paid by the guest to the host at the time rent is paid and held in trust for the city until remitted.

Section 3.40.080 requires the operator to register with the tax administrator and post the resulting transient occupancy registration certificate in a conspicuous place. Section 3.40.090 requires a quarterly return and full remittance by the last day of the month following each calendar quarter. Missing that deadline triggers escalating penalties under Section 3.40.100: a ten percent penalty for original delinquency, an additional ten percent if the remittance is still unpaid thirty days later, a twenty-five percent fraud penalty where nonpayment is determined to be fraudulent, and interest at one-half of one percent per month on the unpaid tax until paid.

Separately, Section 17.74.020(B) requires a nonrefundable short-term rental permit application fee set by city council resolution, capped at the city's reasonable cost of administering the chapter, due with the initial application and again every year at renewal under Section 17.74.020(C), alongside proof that business license taxes have been paid and TOT has been regularly collected and remitted.