Short-Term Rental Taxes

Short-Term Rental Taxes

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While the City of Johnson City does not currently have land use regulations for Short-Term Rentals, such as AirBnB, VRBO, etc., there is an additional tax. In 2019, the City of Johnson City, Tennessee clarified language in its Hotel/Motel Transient Occupancy Privilege Tax Ordinance (https://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/system/files/codes/JohnsonCity_t-5.pdf) to include “Short-Term Rentals” - such as those who utilize Airbnb, VRBO, and other similar online marketplaces for home sharing services. Please ensure that the 7% Occupancy Tax (Section 5-302 of the City’s Municipal Code) is applied to users within the corporate limits of the City of Johnson City. This may be done by paying the City directly or through your platform’s payment/check-out process.

Additionally, the City of Johnson City has a city-wide local option sales tax of 2.5%. This sales tax is in addition to the 7% State-wide sales tax (Tennessee) and the 2.5% county-wide local sales tax for Washington County. Small portions of the City of Johnson City are located in two additional counties, Sullivan County which has a local sales tax of 2.25% and Carter County which has a local sales tax of 2.75%. Short-Term Rental Hosts are responsible for these state & local sales taxes in addition to the City’s 7% Hotel/Motel Transient Occupancy Privilege Tax.

* The total tax percentage to be charged by hosts in Washington County, Johnson City, TN is 16.5%.
* The total tax percentage to be charged by hosts in Sullivan County, Johnson City, TN is 16.25%.
* The total tax percentage to be charged by hosts in Carter County, Johnson City, TN is 16.75%.

The form for remitting Hotel/Motel Transient Occupancy Privilege Tax to the City can be found here.

A host can determine which county-level local sales tax would apply to their property using the following address-based tool:
 https://tnmap.tn.gov/sst/sst.html 

A host can determine if they are located in the corporate city limits using the following map:
 https://mapgallery-jctngis.opendata.arcgis.com/app/9503afc1c39944fba54e38ba737b4cca 

Additional information on local sales taxes in Tennessee can be found here: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/taxguides/salesanduse.pdf 

For more information regarding the tax associated with Short-Term Rentals, please contact Tasha Dykes, Tax Equity Specialist, at 423-232-1480 or tbabb@johnsoncitytn.org.