Short-term rental tax profile
Tucson, Arizona
10% city tax
Is it allowed here
Short-term rentals are allowed. No city zoning prohibitions noted.
What counts as a short-term rental here
Stays under 30 consecutive days
Long stays
Stays 30 consecutive days or more exempt (under state law)
Stays of less than 30 consecutive days are taxable under transient lodging; 30 or more consecutive days are exempt under state law (A.R.S. §42-6004(H)).
Source High
What the guest is charged
| Tax | Rate | Applies to | Counts as short-term | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occupational License Tax, Transient Non-Hotel Short-Term RentalCity of Tucson via Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) & City code | 10% | Rent; cleaning fee not specified | Stays less than 30 consecutive days (taxable) | Medium | 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 | Nothing, Airbnb collects and remits all of it | City of Tucson 10% |
| Vrbo | Partner | None | 10% | City of Tucson 10% |
| Booking.com | Partner | None | 10% | City of Tucson 10% |
| Expedia | Partner | None | 10% | City of Tucson 10% |
| Partner | None | 10% | City of Tucson 10% | |
| Whimstay | Partner | None | 10% | City of Tucson 10% |
| Direct | Partner | None | 10% | City of Tucson 10% |
On a real booking
$100 a night, 2 nights, $0 cleaning
Example: A 2-night booking at $100/night. Taxable because under 30 nights. Tax is 10% of $200 = $20.
What you have to hold
-
City TPT / Business License
Operating short-term rental (stays under 30 days) in city
- Issued by
- City of Tucson
- Cost
- City Transaction Privilege Tax License: $20 annual, renewal $20
- Renewal
- Annual
- Lead time
- Apply before operating
What you file, and when
| Obligation | Frequency | Due | File with no bookings? | If you are late | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly filing of TPT including transient rental code | monthly | City transient lodging tax filings are made through ADOR's TPT system, due monthly following month. | YesZero TPT return required even if no bookings, ADOR requires filing. | Late penalty per ADOR TPT rules; ADOR sets percentage plus interest (see ADOR instructions). | Arizona Department of Revenue |
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 Tucson, Arizona 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.