Hotel Occupancy Taxes
Exception for Travel Outside Texas

A state employee traveling outside Texas must be reimbursed for his or her required payment of hotel occupancy or similar taxes, per Texas Government Code, Section 660.116(a). The taxes are classified as an incidental expense and not as a lodging expense for the purpose of the maximum reimbursement rate for lodging expenses.

A state employee traveling outside Texas may not be reimbursed for a hotel occupancy or similar tax that applicable law allows to be rebated or refunded to the employee if the agency requires the employee to claim the rebate or refund.

A state employee must be reimbursed for a hotel occupancy or similar tax that the employee is legally exempt, but only if the employee properly claims the exemption and the commercial lodging establishment refuses to honor it, per Texas Government Code, Section 660.116(b).