Accommodations Tax
Be In Compliance With Oconee County And State Of South Carolina:
The State of South Carolina and Oconee County have several compliance requirements for short term rentals. These requirements are primarily related to the collection and remittance of accommodations taxes to both the State of South Carolina and Oconee County. In order to operate a short term rental, you must:
- Register your property with Oconee County through the Online Payment Portal and Registration link.
- Collect and remit the local accommodations tax by the 20th of each month for the previous reporting month or period.
- Oconee County's local accommodations tax (LAT) rate is 3% for properties located in the unincorporated areas of Oconee County and 1.5% for properties located inside a Municipality that also collects the accommodations tax. You must check with the City your property resides in for their City ordinances. Oconee County accommodations taxes must be remitted to Oconee County.
- The State of South Carolina's accommodation tax rate is 2% in addition to the 5% sales tax, and must be remitted to the State of South Carolina. Information regarding the collection and remittance of the State 2% Accommodation Tax can be found at South Carolina Department of Revenue website.
What is a Short Term Rental or STR?
A STR (also known as a vacation rental or accommodations) is defined as any rooms (excluding meeting and conference rooms), campground spaces, lodgings, or sleeping accommodations furnished to transients by a hotel, inn, tourist court, tourist camp, motel, campground, residence, or any other place in which rooms, lodgings or sleeping accommodations are furnished for less than 90 consecutive days, including but not limited to: single family dwellings, duplexes, multi-family dwellings, townhomes, condominiums, time share or similar dwellings. Many hosting sites provide a service to clients listing their properties online for rent to wide audience groups online. Some examples include, but are not limited to: VRBO, Airbnb, HomeAway, Trip Advisor, and many other vacation rental hosting sites.