Oconee County, SC Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

Sec. 30-81 defines 'accommodations' broadly enough to cover short-term rentals directly: rooms, lodgings or sleeping accommodations furnished to transients by a hotel, inn, tourist court, motel, campground, 'residence,' or any other place, for consideration, within the county. That reach comes with one carve-out built for owner-occupied rentals: the tax does not apply where the facility has fewer than six sleeping rooms on the same premises and serves as the owner's or operator's place of abode during the same period the remaining rooms are rented to transients, and only if those rooms are not rented out by anyone other than that owner or operator.

A rental that fits that description, a homeowner renting a couple of spare bedrooms while living there, is exempt; a whole-house short-term rental with no owner in residence is not. Where the tax does apply, Sec. 30-83(b) sets remittance frequency by the size of the operation: monthly filing once the estimated average tax exceeds $50 a month, quarterly filing between $25 and $50 a month, and annual filing under $25 a month, with payment due to the county by the 20th of the month. Stays of 90 continuous days or more to the same person are excluded from 'transient' proceeds entirely, so long-term tenants do not trigger the tax. The tax itself is paid by the guest and collected by the host on a county-prescribed return form.