(A) Hotel accommodation. Each person engaged in the business of operating a hotel in the city shall pay an occupancy tax in the amount of the 2% of the basic rental rates charged per occupied room per night.
(B) Hotel defined. HOTEL shall mean any facility in which the public may, for a consideration, obtain sleeping accommodations in any space ordinarily used for accommodations. The term shall include hotels, motels, tourist hotels, campgrounds, courts, lodging houses, inns and nonprofit hotels; but HOTEL shall not be defined so as to include hospitals, sanitariums, nursing homes, chronic care centers, or dormitories or facilities operated by an educational institution and regularly used to house students.
(C) Occupied room defined; exceptions.
(1) OCCUPIED ROOM shall mean any space ordinarily used for sleeping accommodations and for which any occupant has, for consideration, obtained the use or possession, or the right to use or possess, for a period not to exceed 30 contiguous days. The term shall include camping space, trailer space or recreational vehicle space. The term does not include function room such as a ballroom, banquet room, reception room, or meeting room provided it is not used as temporary sleeping accommodations.
(2) The term OCCUPIED ROOM shall not mean, and no tax imposed by this section shall be measured by or collected for:
(a) Complimentary or other sleeping accommodations for which no consideration is charged;
(b) Sleeping accommodations for which the consideration is paid by a person not subject to the sales and use tax imposed by the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967, as it is amended from time to time; or
(c) Sleeping accommodations leased by an employer for use by its employees when a specific room is the subject of the lease, the lease extends for more than 30 consecutive days, and consideration is actually paid for use during at least 30 consecutive days.
(D) Collection. The tax imposed by this section shall be collected by the hotel operator from the occupant of each room to which the tax applies. The tax may be shown as an add-on to the charge for the occupancy of the rooms and shall be collectible at the time the lodging is furnished, regardless of when the charge for the occupancy is paid. The operator shall remain responsible for payment of all taxes imposed whether the taxes are collected from the guests.
(E) Records. It shall be unlawful for any hotel operator subject to this section to fail to maintain or fail to make available to the city, upon 72 hours notice, written records accurately and completely evidencing the number of rooms occupied, the dates the rooms are occupied, the amount of occupations tax due to or paid under this section, and such other information as is required by the City Treasurer. Such records shall be maintained for a period of three years after the occupation tax is due.
(F) Due date. Notwithstanding any contrary provisions of this chapter, the tax imposed by this section shall be due and payable on the first day of each calendar month next succeeding the month during which the room was occupied. All taxes not paid by the 25th day of the month in which they are due and payable shall be deemed to be delinquent. The operator shall be assessed a penalty of 10% on all delinquent amounts as well as interest of 1% per month of fraction thereof from the first of the month in which such tax becomes due and payable until the date of payment.
(G) Penalty. Any person, partnership, firm, or corporation violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon convictions, shall be punished in accordance with this code. Each distinct act or violation of the terms of this section shall constitute a separate offense.
(Ord. 1495, passed 10-5-2020)