Short-term rental tax profile
Memphis, Tennessee
3.5 % privilege tax plus $2 per occupied room night, plus applicable state sales tax rate
Parts of this profile are unconfirmed. Treat it as a starting point and verify with the authority before charging a guest.
Is it allowed here
Short-term rentals are allowed in Memphis with permit and compliance; existing operations prior to July 1 2023 are grandfathered until ownership change or extended inactivity.
What counts as a short-term rental here
A stay past this length is generally not taxed as a short-term rental. Note that the layers here do not use the same threshold, so a booking can owe one tax and not another.
- less than 90 consecutive daysState sales tax (Tennessee)
- implied transient occupancy (<30 days)City privilege (occupancy) tax
What the guest is charged
| Tax | Rate | Applies to | Counts as short-term | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State sales tax (Tennessee)Tennessee Department of Revenue (state sales tax) | Confirm with the authority | Includes cleaning fees and any mandatory fees | less than 90 consecutive days | Low | Source |
| City privilege (occupancy) taxCity of Memphis | 3.5% | Consideration charged by owner; cleaning fee included as part of consideration | implied transient occupancy (<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 | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct |
| Vrbo | Partner | None | Not stated | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct |
| Booking.com | Partner | None | Not stated | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct |
| Expedia | Partner | None | Not stated | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct |
| Partner | None | Not stated | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct | |
| Whimstay | Partner | None | Not stated | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct |
| Direct | Partner | None | Not stated | Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, Whimstay, Direct |
On a real booking
$100 a night, 1 nights, $20 cleaning
Example: nightly rental charge $100 plus $20 cleaning fee; one room occupied for one night.
What you have to hold
-
Short-term rental permit
Any operation or advertising of short-term rental property within Memphis city limits
- Issued by
- City of Memphis Division of Public Works
- Cost
- $300 application fee, $150 annual renewal fee
- Renewal
- annual
- Lead time
- Renew 30 days before expiration
What you file, and when
| Obligation | Frequency | Due | File with no bookings? | If you are late | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remit occupancy and sales taxes monthly | monthly | Local occupancy tax and state sales tax returns due monthly on the 20th of the following month. | Not confirmed | Not stated | Tennessee Department of Revenue |
| Renew short-term rental permit | annual | Short-term rental permit renew annually; renewal request at least 30 days before expiration. | Not confirmed | Not stated | City of Memphis Division of Public Works |
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 Memphis, Tennessee 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.