Prince William County, VA Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

Sec. 26-121 defines a 'transient' as anyone who obtains accommodations for 29 consecutive days or less, and an 'accommodations intermediary' as any platform that facilitates the sale, such as by charging the guest a room charge or a booking fee it keeps as compensation. Under Sec. 26-124(c), once a booking is facilitated by an intermediary, the intermediary is treated as the party making the retail sale: it must collect the 5 percent tax computed on the room charge, separately state it on the guest's invoice, and remit it to the county, and the guest's debt for the tax runs to the intermediary rather than to the host.

Sec. 26-125(c) requires every accommodations intermediary to submit the property addresses and gross receipts for all rentals it facilitated in the county to the director of finance every month, and Sec. 26-125(d) sets a due date of the twentieth day of the following month for the intermediary's return and remittance, including the number of room nights and the room rate applied. A host whose listings are booked exclusively through an intermediary can skip filing individual monthly returns by submitting a written attestation to that effect, valid for 12 months under Sec.

26-125(e); any booking made outside the platform still has to be reported and taxed directly. Two intermediaries splitting one booking may privately agree which of them remits the tax, so long as the one who agrees to do it is registered with the county, per Sec. 26-125(b).