Richardson, TX Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)
Key Facts
- Tax duty holder
- STR owner, even if platform collects it
- Accounting deadline
- 30 days of director/finance request
- Governing tax chapter
- Ch. 12, Art. II (Hotel Occupancy Tax)
- Revocation ground
- Failure to remit tax, Sec. 6-517(a)(5)
Summary
Richardson requires every short-term rental owner to collect and remit hotel occupancy tax under Chapter 12 of the city code, and to provide the director or finance department a guest and tax accounting within 30 days of a request, even when a listing platform collects the tax.
(a)An owner who operates an STR shall ensure that all hotel occupancy taxes required under state law and Chapter 12, Article II of this Code are properly collected and remitted to the city. Upon request of the Director or the city finance department, the owner shall, within 30 days, provide an accounting of all guests who rented the premises, and the amount of hotel occupancy taxes collected and remitted.(b)If a short-term rental listing service collects hotel occupancy taxes on behalf of the owner, the owner shall remain responsible for ensuring that such taxes are properly remitted to the city in accordance with state law and chapter 12, article II of this Code.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 35 Update 2).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 6-516 places the hotel occupancy tax duty squarely on the STR owner. Subsection (a) requires an owner operating an STR to ensure all hotel occupancy taxes required under state law and Chapter 12, Article II of the city code are properly collected and remitted to the city, and requires the owner, on request of the director or the city finance department, to provide within 30 days a full accounting of every guest who rented the premises along with the amount of hotel occupancy tax collected and remitted for each.
Subsection (b) closes the pass-through gap that short-term rental listing platforms create: even where a listing service such as an online booking platform collects the occupancy tax on the owner's behalf, the owner remains personally responsible for making sure that tax is actually remitted to the city under state law and Chapter 12, Article II. An editor's note attached to the 2026 amending ordinance shows this same tax duty was renumbered from Sec. 6-516 to Sec. 6-517 without changing its substance. The tax obligation sits alongside, and is separately enforced from, the STR registration certificate requirement in Sec. 6-512.
Violations & Fines
Failing to remit hotel occupancy tax as required is grounds for the director to revoke the STR's registration certificate under Sec. 6-517(a)(5), on top of being an independent offense: Sec. 6-520(h) makes it unlawful for an owner to fail to pay hotel occupancy taxes required under state law and Chapter 12, Article II, and Sec. 6-520(i) separately makes it unlawful to fail to provide the required 30-day guest and tax accounting after a director request. Violations are Class C misdemeanors carrying a fine up to $500.00 per offense under Sec. 6-521(a), with each day a separate offense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is responsible for hotel occupancy tax on my Richardson STR?
If Airbnb collects the occupancy tax for me, am I still liable?
What happens if I don't pay the required hotel tax?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Richardson
How Richardson compares: Cities with the Highest Short-Term Rental Taxes·Texas rules heatmap·Compare Richardson to another location·View the Texas short-term rentals overview
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