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

Subsection C.13 of Milpitas's Short-Term Rental ordinance, Municipal Code Section C.10.200, ties every STR to the City's Transient Occupancy Tax. The Subsection states that either the operator or the hosting platform must collect and remit the tax in accordance with Municipal Code Chapter III-13 (Transient Occupancy Tax), the same TOT chapter that applies to Milpitas hotels and motels. The Subsection places a three-year recordkeeping duty on the operator specifically: the operator must maintain records of TOT paid for three years, and that duty stands even when a hosting platform such as a booking site is the one that actually remits the tax on the operator's behalf, so the operator cannot point to the platform's remittance to excuse an incomplete paper trail.

Because TOT compliance sits inside the Short-Term Rental Permit's General Requirements rather than in Chapter III-13 alone, the Director can treat a TOT shortfall as a Section C.10.200 violation and not only as a tax delinquency, opening the door to permit-level consequences on top of whatever collection remedies Chapter III-13 itself provides if the operator or platform falls behind on remittance. The permit application's compliance review under Subsection E, conducted within one year of issuance and annually thereafter alongside Business License renewal, gives the Director a regular checkpoint to confirm the three-year TOT records are being kept.