(A) Legislative findings.
(1) The county wishes to build, maintain and enhance the facilities and provide services that serve the tourists who visit the county. The county wants to strongly support the public services that are available to tourists in order to promote and further encourage tourism in the county. Tourists and other non-residents account for the overwhelming majority of the use of lodging facilities in the county and tourism is a year-round industry in the county.
(2) The county believes that the imposition of a 3% per night accommodations tax per unit upon the rentals of hotels, motels and other lodging establishments in the county that offer accommodations to tourists can be used for the dedicated purpose of providing and improving services and facilities for those tourists.
(B) Definitions.
ACCOMMODATIONS. The establishments in the county and guest charges provided for in S.C. Code § 12-36-920, as amended from time to time, and as construed by the courts for those statutes. ACCOMMODATIONS exempt from the state sales tax are exempt from the tax provided for herein. Court decisions and state regulations defining application and exemption of the state sales tax on ACCOMMODATIONS shall govern the application or exemption of the tax herein.
YORK COUNTY. All of the unincorporated area of that county at the time of the adoption of this subchapter.
(C) Tax on accommodations. There is imposed a uniform tax of 3% of the gross proceeds from the sale or rental of accommodations within the county as defined in division (B) above. This accommodations tax shall be collected from every patron or customer when the patron or customer tenders payment for the accommodations and shall be collected by the provider of the accommodations who shall hold it in trust for the benefit of the county until paid to the county as hereinafter provided.
(D) Special account. There is established a special account, to be known as the Local Accommodations Tax Account, into which all funds remitted to the county under this subchapter shall be deposited.
(E) Collection time forms and procedures.
(1) The county manager shall provide procedures for remittance of the taxes to the county which shall utilize to the fullest extent practicable comparable state return forms, filing dates and procedures so as to reduce duplication of paper work on the part of providers subject to this section.
(2) The county manager is authorized to promulgate the administrative policies and procedures, including necessary forms, returns and due dates for forms and returns, as he or she may deem necessary for the proper administration and enforcement of this section and to amend the same from time to time as may be required by the circumstances including, the designation and authorization of county personnel for those purposes. The procedures shall provide for systematic inspections of accommodations within the county to determine compliance with this section.
(F) An amount of the accommodations taxes collected annually in the unincorporated area of York County pursuant to S.C. Code § 12-36-920, not to exceed 20% of the revenue of the preceding fiscal year of the local accommodations tax authorized pursuant to the South Carolina Local Accommodations Tax Act, S.C. Code § 6-1-510 et seq., may be used for the operation and maintenance of facilities, infrastructure and items described in S.C. Code § 6-1-530(A)(1) through (6), including police, fire protection, emergency medical services and emergency-preparedness operations directly attendant to those facilities, infrastructure and items.
(‘77 Code, § 8-13) (Ord. 598, passed 1-19-98; Am. Ord. 3008, passed 6-16-08) Penalty, see § 35.999