Amends TCA Title 67.

ON APRIL 27, 2022, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 681, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and adds to the present law provisions governing the hotel occupancy tax authorization, in a county with a metropolitan government that has imposed a privilege tax upon the privilege of occupancy in a hotel of each transient, for such metropolitan government to, upon approval by ordinance of the metropolitan council, impose an additional privilege tax upon the privilege of occupancy in a hotel of each transient in an amount up to 1 percent of the consideration charged by the operator. The proceeds from the privilege tax provided for in this amendment must be retained by the metropolitan government for the exclusive use of the sports authority for the payment of debt service for the construction of an enclosed stadium with at least 50,000 seats and for future capital improvements to the enclosed stadium. The privilege tax will be added by each operator to each invoice prepared by the operator for the occupancy of the operator's hotel, such invoice to be given directly or transmitted to the transient, and the tax must be collected by the operator from the transient and remitted to the tax collection official. For the purpose of compensating the operator in accounting for and remitting the tax, the operator will be allowed 2 percent of the amount of tax due and accounted for and remitted to the tax collection official in the form of a deduction in submitting the operator's report and paying the amount due by the operator; provided, that the amount due was not delinquent at the time of payment. On or after the effective date of this bill as amended, the tax levied pursuant to this amendment, when levied upon the occupancy of a short-term rental unit secured through a short-term rental unit marketplace, must be collected and remitted in accordance with the present law provisions governing the tax on a short-term rental unit marketplace. An operator will be liable for interest on such delinquent taxes from the due date at the rate of 8 percent per annum, and in addition for penalty of 1 percent for each month or fraction of a month that such taxes are delinquent. Such interest and penalty must become a part of the tax required in this amendment to be remitted. On and after July 1, 2022, willful refusal of an operator to collect or remit the tax or willful refusal of a transient to pay the tax imposed is a Class C misdemeanor. The fine applies to each individual transaction involving lodging services paid by a customer to the operator in those cases when the operator refuses to collect or remit the tax or the transient refuses to pay the tax payable.