Tuscaloosa, AL Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

City Code Sec. 7-200 sets the short-term rental lodging tax at eleven (11) percent of the room charge for any short-term rental operated inside Tuscaloosa's corporate limits, covering the base charge plus any personal property or services furnished with the room. Properties located outside the city limits but inside its police jurisdiction pay five and one-half (5½) percent, and the code caps that outside rate at no more than half of the in-city rate. No short-term rental may operate at all without first obtaining a business license from the city, a license required under Sec. 7-200(c) before any night is rented.

Sec. 7-201 sets the payment schedule: the tax is due monthly, on or before the 20th day of the month following the month the charges accrued, paid to the revenue director alongside the monthly report required by Sec. 7-202. That report must show gross proceeds for the preceding month, and operators who route bookings through a third-party platform must submit that platform's transaction history showing dates booked, gross revenue and tax collected. A host who misses the 20th-of-the-month deadline owes an automatic ten (10) percent delinquency penalty on top of the tax due, assessed and collected as part of the lodging tax itself under Sec. 7-201.

This tax stacks on top of, and is separate from, the insurance, safety-equipment, and inspection requirements the city also imposes on short-term rentals under the same Article XII, and separate again from the zoning approvals a host may need to operate outside the tourist overlay boundary.