Hotel Occupancy Taxes
Exception for Employees of Educational Organizations

A state employee of an agency that qualifies as an educational organization is exempt from paying the state hotel occupancy tax, per Texas Tax Code, Section 156.102(a). The employee is not exempt from paying the county or municipal hotel occupancy tax.

A Texas institution of higher education may not reimburse a state employee for a state hotel occupancy tax charged by a commercial lodging establishment if the employee fails to present a properly completed exemption certificate to the establishment, per Texas Government Code, Section 660.116(b). However, this prohibition does not apply if the employee does not present the certificate because he or she is required by the agency to conceal his or her identity.

If the state employee of an institution of higher education presents a properly completed exemption certificate to a commercial lodging establishment and the establishment refuses to honor the certificate, then a state agency or institution of higher education will reimburse the employee for all the hotel occupancy taxes charged by the establishment. The agency must provide the Comptroller with the name of each establishment within Texas that refuses to honor a properly completed and presented exemption certificate.