HB492: HB492 Revenue and taxation; repeal an exemption for charges paid for continuous use of rooms, lodgings, or accommodations after the first 30 days of continuous occupancy

Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51), counties and cities can charge a tax on hotel, motel, and other lodging accommodations to help fund tourism, conventions, and trade shows. That law exempts several kinds of charges from the tax, including charges for people staying in a room continuously for more than 30 days. This bill removes that 30-day exemption by deleting paragraph (4) from the list of exempted charges in subsection (h). It leaves in place the other exemptions, covering people displaced by fire or disaster, free meeting rooms and accommodations, and government employees traveling on official business. If enacted, local governments would be able to apply their public accommodations tax to long-term lodging stays that previously were not taxed once they passed the 30-day mark.

• Repeals the exemption that currently excuses charges for continuous room or lodging use after the first 30 days of occupancy from local accommodations taxes.
• Leaves intact the existing exemptions for disaster victims, free meeting rooms and accommodations, and government employees traveling on official business.
• Amends O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51(h), the section governing what public accommodations charges local hotel-motel taxes can and cannot apply to.
• Repeals any other state laws that conflict with this change.

Long-term hotel, motel, and extended-stay lodging guests who stay more than 30 continuous days, the lodging businesses that collect the tax, and county and municipal governments that levy public accommodations taxes for tourism and convention funding.

Guests staying in hotels, motels, or extended-stay lodging for more than a month would start paying local accommodations tax on those charges, raising their costs. Local governments that impose the tax would gain additional tax revenue from stays that were previously exempt.

• Section 1 revises subsection (h) of O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51 and deletes paragraph (4), which had exempted charges for continuous occupancy beyond 30 days from the public accommodations tax.
• Section 1 keeps exemptions for people displaced by fire or casualty, free meeting rooms or accommodations, and state or local government officials or employees traveling on official business.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws, a standard clause that does not change substantive policy on its own.

1. 2025-02-20House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-19House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-18House Hopper (House)

• Clint Crowe (R, HD-118)Primary sponsor
• Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)

• hotel-motel tax
• lodging taxes
• tourism funding
• local government revenue
• extended-stay lodging