Vacation rental operators inside Sonoma city limits collect a 13% Transient Occupancy Tax (Sonoma Municipal Code Ch. 3.16) plus a 2% Sonoma Valley Tourism Improvement District assessment, for a combined 15% added to every stay of 30 days or less.
The City of Sonoma levies a Transient Occupancy Tax under Sonoma Municipal Code Chapter 3.16 at a rate of 13%, applied to occupants of hotels, inns, B&Bs, guesthouses and vacation rentals for any stay of 30 consecutive calendar days or less. A separate 2% Sonoma Valley Tourism Improvement District (TID) assessment is layered on top of TOT and collected by lodging operators on the same return, bringing total tax on a Sonoma vacation-rental booking to 15%. Operators must register with the Tax Administrator (Finance Department) within 30 days of commencing business and receive a Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate that must be posted on the premises (SMC 3.16). Returns are filed monthly through the City's online portal at sonoma.hdlgov.com. Note: the City has banned issuance of *new* vacation-rental permits since the December 4, 2017 ordinance, so only legally grandfathered operators (and the narrow historic-structure adaptive-reuse exception) may collect TOT inside city limits.
Tax not remitted on the due date is delinquent under SMC Ch. 3.16; a 10% penalty plus interest applies, with an additional 10% penalty if the operator fails to file after notice. Fraudulent failure to remit triggers a 25% penalty. The Tax Administrator may revoke the registration certificate, impose a tax lien on the property, and refer chronic non-filers for collection. Operating without a TOT Certificate is itself a municipal-code violation enforceable through the City's administrative-citation process.
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