HB1216: HB1216 Revenue and taxation; require that any excise tax on rooms, lodgings, and accommodations be remitted to the Department of Revenue for disbursement

Georgia counties and cities can levy an excise tax on hotel rooms and short-term lodging (O.C.G.A. Title 48, Chapter 13, Article 3) to fund tourism promotion. Currently innkeepers collect that tax and remit it directly to the local governing authority that imposed it. This bill would instead require innkeepers to send those tax payments to the Georgia Department of Revenue, which would then disburse the money to the county, municipality, tourism marketing organization, or other entity named in local contracts or memoranda of understanding. Local governments would have to submit their contracts and agreements about how the tax money gets spent to the Department of Revenue, and the department would attach an itemized breakdown to each disbursement showing how much must go toward tourism product development. The department would also gain authority to write rules and forms governing this process. The changes would take effect once signed by the Governor and would apply to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.

• Requires innkeepers to remit hotel and lodging excise tax payments to the Department of Revenue instead of directly to the county or municipality that levied the tax.
• Requires each tax return to identify the specific location and amount collected at each lodging establishment so the state can verify proper collection and disbursement.
• Requires counties and municipalities to submit contracts and memoranda of understanding about how tax proceeds will be spent to the Department of Revenue.
• Requires the department to disburse the tax proceeds to the correct county, municipality, tourism marketing organization, or other designated recipient, including a line item for tourism product development spending.
• Gives the Department of Revenue authority to create rules, regulations, and forms for administering the new remittance and disbursement process.
• Changes several existing code sections so that tax returns, extensions, and penalty provisions reference the department instead of the local governing authority.

The bill affects hotel and motel operators (innkeepers) who collect the lodging tax, county and municipal governments that currently receive and spend the tax revenue, tourism marketing organizations funded by it, the Department of Revenue, and the Department of Community Affairs, which receives related annual reports.

Local governments would no longer receive lodging tax money directly from hotels; instead the state would collect it and pass it through based on submitted contracts. This adds a state review step that could affect how quickly and under what conditions tourism funding reaches counties, cities, and tourism organizations.

• New Code Section 48-13-50.5 (Section 1) requires all lodging excise tax to be remitted to the Department of Revenue instead of the applicable county or municipality, with location-by-location reporting.
• Section 1 also requires local governments to submit their spending contracts and memoranda of understanding to the department so it can carry out disbursements.
• Section 1 requires each disbursement to include a line item showing the portion of proceeds that must go toward tourism product development.
• Section 2 revises O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51 so guests' tax payments are remitted to the department rather than the local governing authority.
• Sections 4-9 update multiple code sections (48-13-53.2, 48-13-53.3, 48-13-54, 48-13-56, 48-13-58.1, 48-13-61) on returns, extensions, penalties, and reporting to reference the Department of Revenue instead of local governing authorities.
• Section 10 sets the effective date as upon the Governor's approval, applicable to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.

1. 2026-02-09House Second Readers (House)
2. 2026-02-06House First Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-05House Hopper (House)

• Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)Primary sponsor
• Gerald Greene (R, HD-154)
• Kasey Carpenter (R, HD-004)
• Katie Dempsey (R, HD-013)
• Anissa Jones (D, HD-143)
• Lehman Franklin (R, HD-160)

• hotel motel tax
• tourism funding
• local government revenue
• Department of Revenue
• lodging tax