Short-term rental tax profile
Austin, Texas
6% state + 11% city = 17% total HOT
Is it allowed here
Short-term rentals are allowed in Austin’s full-purpose jurisdiction as accessory use with valid operator’s license, subject to unit limits and spacing, local contact and compliance rules.
What counts as a short-term rental here
A stay past this length is generally not taxed as a short-term rental.
- 30 daysTexas State Hotel Occupancy Tax
- 30 daysCity of Austin Hotel Occupancy Tax (including venue tax)
What the guest is charged
| Tax | Rate | Applies to | Counts as short-term | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas State Hotel Occupancy TaxState of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts | 6% | Applies to room charge excluding food and personal services (cleaning included as room service) | 30 days | High | Source |
| City of Austin Hotel Occupancy Tax (including venue tax)City of Austin Financial Services | 11% | Applies to cost of room, cleaning included as part of room charge; apply on entire charge including cleaning. | 30 days | High | 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 | Fully | Not stated | Nothing |
| Vrbo | Partner | None | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, City of Austin |
| Booking.com | Partner | None | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, City of Austin |
| Expedia | Partner | None | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, City of Austin |
| Partner | None | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, City of Austin | |
| Whimstay | Partner | None | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, City of Austin |
| Direct | Partner | None | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, City of Austin |
On a real booking
$200 a night, 3 nights, $0 cleaning
If a guest pays $200 per night including cleaning fee, and cleaning is part of taxable room charge, state HOT is 6% of $200, city HOT is 11% of $200, total tax is $34 per night. For a 3-night stay: taxable_subtotal $600, nights 3, tax_amount $102.
What you have to hold
-
Austin STR Operator’s License
Operating any STR within full-purpose jurisdiction of Austin
- Issued by
- City of Austin Development Services / Code Compliance
- Cost
- $836.30 for new license (includes $789 license fee + $47.30 notification), $385.30 renewal (includes $338 renewal fee + $47.30 notification)
- Renewal
- 2 years
- Lead time
- 6-8 weeks for single family; 8-10 weeks for multi-family
What you file, and when
| Obligation | Frequency | Due | File with no bookings? | If you are late | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File and remit state hotel occupancy tax | monthly | 20th day of month following filing period (monthly or quarterly) | Not confirmed | Not stated | State of Texas Comptroller |
| File and remit City of Austin hotel occupancy tax and report platform-collected amounts | quarterly | Last day of month following each quarter | Not confirmed | Not stated | City of Austin Financial Services |
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 Austin, Texas 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.