Arizona Laws 42-5070. Transient lodging classification; definition
A. The transient lodging classification is comprised of the business of operating, for occupancy by transients, a hotel or motel, including an inn, tourist home or house, dude ranch, resort, campground, studio or bachelor hotel, lodging house, rooming house, apartment house, dormitory, public or private club, mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location or other similar structure, and also including a space, lot or slab that is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients in a mobile home or house trailer furnished by them for such occupancy.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 42-5070
- Business: includes all activities or acts, personal or corporate, that are engaged in or caused to be engaged in with the object of gain, benefit or advantage, either directly or indirectly, but does not include either:
(a) Casual activities or sales. See Arizona Laws 42-5001
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Department: means the department of revenue. See Arizona Laws 42-1001
- Engaging: when used with reference to engaging or continuing in business, includes the exercise of corporate or franchise powers. See Arizona Laws 42-5001
- Gross income: means the gross receipts of a taxpayer derived from trade, business, commerce or sales and the value proceeding or accruing from the sale of tangible personal property or service, or both, and without any deduction on account of losses. See Arizona Laws 42-5001
- Gross proceeds of sales: means the value proceeding or accruing from the sale of tangible personal property without any deduction on account of the cost of property sold, expense of any kind or losses, but cash discounts allowed and taken on sales are not included as gross income. See Arizona Laws 42-5001
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Marketplace: means a physical or electronic place, platform or forum, including a store, booth, internet website, catalog or dedicated sales software application, where products, including tangible personal property, are offered for sale. See Arizona Laws 42-5001
- Person: means a natural person, individual, proprietor, proprietorship, company, corporation, organization, association, joint venture, partner, partnership, trust, estate or limited liability company, the federal or state government, a political subdivision of a state or any other legal entity or combination of entities that owns, controls or has possession of real or personal property. See Arizona Laws 42-11001
- Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
B. The transient lodging classification does not include:
1. Operating a convalescent home or facility, home for the aged, hospital, jail, military installation or fraternity or sorority house or operating any structure exclusively by an association, institution, governmental agency or corporation for religious, charitable or educational purposes, if no part of the net earnings of the association, corporation or other entity inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
2. A lease or rental of a mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location or any other similar structure, and also including a space, lot or slab that is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients in a mobile home or house trailer furnished by them for such occupancy for thirty or more consecutive days.
3. Leasing or renting four or fewer rooms of an owner-occupied residential home, together with furnishing no more than a breakfast meal, to transient lodgers at no more than a fifty percent average annual occupancy rate.
4. The activities of any online lodging marketplace, as defined in section 42-5076.
C. The tax base for the transient lodging classification is the gross proceeds of sales or gross income derived from the business, except that the tax base does not include:
1. The gross proceeds of sales or gross income derived from business activity that is properly included in another business classification under this article and that is taxable to the person engaged in that business classification, but the gross proceeds of sales or gross income to be deducted shall not exceed the consideration paid to the person conducting the activity.
2. The gross proceeds or gross income received by an online lodging operator, as defined in section 42-5076, from any online lodging transactions, as defined in section 42-5076, for which the online lodging operator has received documentation from a registered online lodging marketplace, as defined in section 42-5076, pursuant to section 42-5009, subsection P that the online lodging marketplace has remitted or will remit the applicable tax to the department pursuant to section 42-5014, subsection E.
D. For the purposes of this section, the tax base for the transient lodging classification does not include gross proceeds of sales or gross income derived from:
1. Transactions or activities that are not limited to transients and that would not be taxable if engaged in by a person not subject to tax under this article.
2. Transactions or activities that are not limited to transients and that would not be taxable if engaged in by a person subject to taxation under section 42-5062 or 42-5073 due to an exclusion, exemption or deduction.
3. Commissions paid to a person that is engaged in transient lodging business subject to taxation under this section by a person providing services or property to the customers of the person engaging in the transient lodging business.
E. The department shall separately account for revenues collected under the transient lodging classification for the purposes of section 42-5029, subsection D, paragraph 4, subdivision (b).
F. For the purposes of this section, "transient" means any person who either at the person’s own expense or at the expense of another obtains lodging space or the use of lodging space on a daily or weekly basis, or on any other basis for less than thirty consecutive days.