Short-term rental tax profile
Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina
State sales tax + 1% county + up to 5% city
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 permitted within allowed zoning districts; R-1 and R-1M allow single-family dwellings for short-term occupancy as permitted uses.
What counts as a short-term rental here
Rentals less than 15 days
Long stays
Rentals of 90 consecutive days or more exempt from county occupancy tax
State sales tax applies to rentals less than 15 days. County occupancy tax also applies to rentals less than 15 days, exempt at 90 consecutive days. Town occupancy applies to all rentals.
The layers here do not all use the same threshold, so one booking can owe one tax and not another. Check the "counts as short-term" column below.
Source High
What the guest is charged
| Tax | Rate | Applies to | Counts as short-term | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State Sales TaxNorth Carolina (state), Department of Revenue | Confirm with the authority | Gross receipts from rental of lodging, including cleaning fee if included in gross receipts. | Less than 15 days | Low | Unverified |
| Brunswick County Room Occupancy TaxBrunswick County Revenue Department | 1% | Gross receipts from rental including cleaning fee if part of receipts. | Less than 15 days (exempt at 90+ consecutive days) | High | Source |
| Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy TaxTown of Ocean Isle Beach | 5% | Gross receipts from rental including cleaning fee if part of receipts. | All durations; no threshold exemption | 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 | Partially | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax |
| Vrbo | Partner | None | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax |
| Booking.com | Partner | None | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax |
| Expedia | Partner | None | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax |
| Partner | None | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax | |
| Whimstay | Partner | None | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax |
| Direct | Partner | None | Full combined rate: state sales tax + 1% county occupancy + up to 5% city occupancy | State Sales Tax, Brunswick County Room Occupancy Tax, Ocean Isle Beach Room Occupancy Tax |
On a real booking
$200 a night, 2 nights, $0 cleaning
If a guest books a $200 per night rental (including cleaning fee) for two nights through direct booking, the owner charges state sales tax on $400, plus $4 (1% county) plus up to $20 (5% city). The owner remits those amounts on the monthly occupancy tax return.
What you file, and when
| Obligation | Frequency | Due | File with no bookings? | If you are late | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File and remit occupancy tax return monthly | monthly | Return and payment due on or before the 15th day of the month following the reporting period. | YesReturns must be filed even if no tax is due. | 5% of tax due if late plus 10% if payment not timely; additional 5% per 30 days if over 30 days; state law requires 15% penalty monthly. | Brunswick County 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 Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina 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.