Short-term rental tax profile
New Mexico
5% county occupancy tax
Is it allowed here
Alto is unincorporated; no municipal STR regulations apply. County-level tax applies; licensing rules not found.
What counts as a short-term rental here
Stays less than 30 calendar days
Long stays
None specified; long-stay exemption not defined locally
Any stay rented for less than 30 calendar days is a short-term rental taxable under STR rules in New Mexico.
Source High
What the guest is charged
| Tax | Rate | Applies to | Counts as short-term | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln County Occupancy (Lodgers’) TaxLincoln County Department of Finance/County Clerk | 5% | Gross taxable rent (cleaning fee likely taxable unless otherwise stated) | Any rental of lodging (no minimum stay threshold specified), stays of any length less than statutory long-term exemption (normally over 30 days, but no specific local long-stay exemption noted). | Medium | Secondary source |
Who actually remits it
Whoever runs the guest's card owes the tax. That is the whole rule, and it is why the same booking can be taxed differently on two platforms.
| Platform | Merchant of record | Collects | You charge | You remit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbnb | Platform | Partially | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax |
| Vrbo | Partner | None | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax |
| Booking.com | Partner | None | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax |
| Expedia | Partner | None | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax |
| Partner | None | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax | |
| Whimstay | Partner | None | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax |
| Direct | Partner | None | 5% county occupancy tax | Lincoln County Occupancy Tax |
On a real booking
$100 a night, 5 nights, $50 cleaning
For a 5-night stay at $100/night plus $50 cleaning, total rent $500; county occupancy tax is 5% on gross taxable rent, assumed including cleaning, tax $25.
What you have to hold
-
Short-term rental registration
Operating any short-term rental in unincorporated Alto
- Issued by
- Lincoln County (if required) and NM Taxation & Revenue Department for registration
- Cost
- Renewal
- annual
- Lead time
What you file, and when
| Obligation | Frequency | Due | File with no bookings? | If you are late | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owners must register with NM Taxation & Revenue for GRT; file gross receipts tax state returns, and separately remit county occupancy tax. | quarterly | Quarterly reporting on gross receipts tax with state; county occupancy tax return schedule per county ordinance: likely quarterly with DFA reporting form per NMAC and county instructions | Not confirmed | Not stated | New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration / Lincoln County |
Still to confirm
These are the figures we could not confirm from a primary source. Confirm them before you charge a guest.
Whether cleaning fees are taxable under county occupancy tax
Cleaning fees are often overlooked but may be taxable and affect total tax owed.
Ask: Lincoln County Tax Collector or DFA Local Government Division
Whether zero-return is required for periods with no rentals for county occupancy tax
Owners need to know whether returns are required when no bookings occur to avoid penalties.
Ask: Lincoln County or NM Taxation and Revenue Department
What this page cannot see
Your HOA, condo board or neighborhood covenant
This page covers public law: what the state, county and city require. It cannot see the private rules attached to your specific property. An HOA, a condo association, a co-op board or a recorded neighborhood covenant can cap nights, require its own registration and fees, demand approval of every guest, or prohibit short-term renting outright, no matter what New Mexico allows. Those documents are not published anywhere public, so read your CC&Rs, bylaws and any lease before you take a booking. They routinely override everything above.
Sub-city districts you may sit inside
Tax can also attach below the city line. Tourism improvement and business improvement districts, resort area districts, convention and stadium districts, transit districts and community development districts are all drawn on a map, and whether you owe them depends on which side of a street you are on. They are usually a small percentage or a flat nightly amount, they are charged to the guest like any other lodging tax, and they are the layer most often missed because nobody expects a district smaller than a city to levy one.
If your address sits inside one, your county or city finance office can confirm it. Ask specifically whether any special district assessment applies to transient lodging at your parcel.
Primary sources
Take the PDF with you
Everything above as a designed profile you can file, print, or hand to a bookkeeper. Reading it here stays free; the document goes to an inbox.
Corzly does not file this for you
You register, you collect, you remit, you hold the licenses. What we do is run the property so those numbers are right in the first place, on every channel, without you chasing them.
We manage short-term rentals remotely, 300+ properties across 50+ cities and 7 countries, so where the property sits makes no difference to whether we can take it on.
Talk to us about your portfolioHow to use this page. Corzly does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice, and we are not licensed tax professionals. This profile is automated research compiled from published government sources. Each figure carries a link to the source we read, so you can verify it yourself rather than take our word for it.
Tax rates, license requirements and filing rules change, and any source can be superseded without notice. Anything we could not confirm is marked Low confidence or listed under "Still to confirm" rather than guessed at. Before charging a guest, registering, or filing a return, confirm every figure directly with the taxing authority.
Registering, collecting, filing and remitting remain your responsibility. If the amounts matter to your business, and they do, take this research to a licensed tax professional or the authority itself before acting on it.
If you would rather hand the whole thing off, a service like Avalara MyLodgeTax can register, file and remit on your behalf.