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Hotel And Lodging Tax In Nebraska 2026: TOT Rates By City
Nebraska stacks a 1% state lodging tax, a county lodging tax up to 4%, and a separate city occupation tax many cities impose on their own authority, pushing Omaha's combined rate above 10%.
August 28, 2026
7
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TL;DR
- Nebraska imposes a 1% state lodging tax under the Nebraska Visitors Development Act, layered on top of a separate county lodging tax.
- Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all describe the same charge on short-term hotel, motel, and short-term rental stays.
- Most Nebraska counties now charge the maximum 4% county lodging tax, though Adams County sits at 3% and Blaine and Box Butte counties charge 0%.
- Cities like Omaha and Lincoln add their own separate hotel occupation tax under home-rule authority, a tax not authorized by the same law as the state and county rate.
- Omaha's combined lodging-specific tax reaches 10.5% once its 5.5% city occupation tax is added to the 1% state and 4% Douglas County rate.
- Stays of 30 or more consecutive days are exempt, but only from day one if the hotel has an agreement with the guest in place from the start; otherwise tax is collected until the threshold is reached.
- Nebraska's lodging tax return is filed monthly or annually, never quarterly, with the frequency set by the state based on the operator's taxable sales volume.
- Lincoln levies a distinct 4% Short Term Rental Occupation Tax that applies specifically to Airbnb- and Vrbo-style stays, separate from its general hotel occupation tax.
How Nebraska's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works
Nebraska taxes hotel and short-term rental stays through three separate layers: a 1% state lodging tax, a county lodging tax that most counties now set at the maximum 4%, and, in cities like Omaha and Lincoln, a separate municipal occupation tax that exists under entirely different legal authority than the other two.
The state lodging tax and the county lodging tax both trace back to the Nebraska Visitors Development Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 81-3701 through 81-3729. The state rate has stood at 1% since it took effect on July 19, 1980, and its revenue supports the Nebraska Tourism Commission. A county adds its own lodging tax by resolution after a public hearing, not a voter referendum, and the Act builds in a deliberate lag: a new or increased county rate does not take effect until the first day of a calendar quarter that falls at least 120 days after the Department of Revenue receives a copy of the adopting resolution.
City-level hotel taxes are a different animal entirely. Home rule cities such as Omaha and Lincoln impose their own hotel occupation tax under their own municipal authority, separate from the Visitors Development Act, which means the Department of Revenue's published county lodging tax rates never tell the full story for a guest checking into a hotel inside city limits. Coverage extends to hotels, motels, and short-term rentals of rooms; Lincoln goes a step further and taxes short-term rental bookings under a distinct ordinance from its general hotel occupation tax.
Tax Rates and Extra Fees
What looks like a single county lodging tax rate is often two stacked pieces layered in over time. Nebraska's Department of Revenue publishes a chronology for every county, and it shows most counties reaching today's 4% rate in two steps: an original county lodging tax, often 2%, followed years later by an additional increment adopted to fund an Improvement Fund under the same Act. Douglas County, for example, has held its base 2% since 1980 and added the second 2% in 1989; Lancaster County did the same, adding its second increment in 2005.
| City / county | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Omaha (Douglas County) | 10.5% | 1% state, 4% county, 5.5% city hotel occupation tax on top; the highest combined lodging-specific rate among Nebraska's major cities |
| Lincoln (Lancaster County) | 9% | 1% state, 4% county, 4% city hotel occupation tax; short-term rentals pay a separate 4% Short Term Rental Occupation Tax instead of this rate |
| Grand Island (Hall County) | 5% | 1% state, 4% county; no separate city occupation tax identified |
| Kearney (Buffalo County) | 5% | 1% state, 4% county; no separate city occupation tax identified |
| Bellevue, La Vista, Papillion (Sarpy County) | 5% | 1% state, 4% county; the county rate rose from 2.5% in 2009 to its current 4% |
| Scottsbluff, Gering (Scotts Bluff County) | 5% | 1% state, 4% county; no separate city occupation tax identified |
| Hastings (Adams County) | 4% | 1% state, 3% county; Adams is one of the few counties still below the 4% maximum |
| Alliance (Box Butte County) | 1% | State rate only; Box Butte reduced its county lodging tax to 0% in 2011 |
None of the rates above include Nebraska's general state and local sales tax, which applies to hotel charges separately from the lodging tax. A guest's total bill in a city like Lincoln combines the 9% lodging-specific stack with ordinary sales tax on top, so the lodging tax rate alone understates what actually lands on the folio.
There is no statewide tourism improvement district layered over these rates the way some states use a business improvement district assessment. In Nebraska, that same funding role is built directly into the county lodging tax itself: the Improvement Fund increment described above is a second county-level rate stacked on the base county rate, both administered through the same return, rather than a separate district charge with its own filing.
Collection and Remittance
The guest pays the lodging tax at checkout, but the hotel or short-term rental operator is the party legally responsible for collecting and remitting it. State and county lodging tax are combined on a single return, Form 64, filed with the Nebraska Department of Revenue. City occupation taxes in places like Omaha and Lincoln are separate filings made directly to the city, not to the state.
Nebraska assigns each lodging tax filer either a monthly or an annual schedule, never a quarterly one. Operators with less than $10,000 in taxable lodging sales in a year can file annually; everyone else files monthly. Both Form 64 and the related sales tax return are considered timely if postmarked by the 25th day of the month following the tax period, a due date that differs from the end-of-month deadline common in other states.
Exemptions From Nebraska's Hotel Tax
Nebraska's lodging tax exempts stays of 30 continuous days or longer, along with two narrower categories worth knowing: rooms in dormitories operated by an educational institution, and room rentals by certain state-licensed health care facilities. None of these three exemptions require a special certificate; standard business records are enough to support the exemption if the state ever asks.
In practice, the 30-day exemption still depends on timing. If a hotel has a written or verbal agreement with the guest from the very first day of the stay establishing a term of at least 30 continuous days, the exemption can apply immediately. Without that agreement in place from day one, the property must collect lodging tax as usual and can only credit it back once the guest actually reaches the 30-day mark.
Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance
- Treating the county rate as the whole bill. In cities with their own occupation tax, like Omaha and Lincoln, the Department of Revenue's published county lodging tax rate is only part of what a guest pays; missing the city's separate occupation tax understates the real rate by 4 to 5.5 percentage points.
- Applying the 30-day exemption without paperwork in place from day one. Nebraska doesn't require a special exemption certificate, but without a dated agreement from the start of the stay, tax still has to be collected until the guest actually reaches 30 continuous days.
- Assuming a newly adopted county rate is already in effect. A county's lodging tax resolution doesn't take effect until the first day of a calendar quarter at least 120 days after the Department of Revenue receives it, so a midyear vote can take most of a year to actually change what's collected.
- Defaulting to quarterly filing. Nebraska only offers monthly or annual lodging tax filing, never quarterly, and carrying over a quarterly habit from another tax or another state leads to missed Form 64 deadlines.
- Mixing up Lincoln's two occupation taxes. Lincoln charges 4% on traditional hotel stays under its general hotel occupation tax but applies a separate 4% Short Term Rental Occupation Tax to Airbnb- and Vrbo-style bookings, and configuring both the same way in a tax system can misclassify one or the other.
- Overlooking the dormitory and health care carve-outs. Nebraska specifically exempts educational-institution dormitory rooms and certain licensed health care facility rentals, categories a generic short-term-rental tax checklist built for other states typically won't include.
Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance
None of this is about software fixing Nebraska's layered tax structure, since the state, county, and city each set and collect their own piece independently. What a PMS can do is keep those layers from getting collapsed into one another at the point of sale: configuring separate tax codes for a hotel's state and county lodging tax versus a city's occupation tax, or for Lincoln's general hotel occupation tax versus its distinct Short Term Rental Occupation Tax, keeps front desk staff from applying the wrong combined rate to the wrong booking type. Revenue reports broken out by date range also help a multi-property operator catch the moment a county's newly adopted rate actually crosses its 120-day effective date, rather than relying on someone remembering to update it manually, and a booking engine that shows the full lodging-tax-inclusive price upfront keeps that complexity from becoming a guest-facing surprise at checkout.
See how roommaster simplifies multi-property tax reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does Nebraska have a statewide hotel tax rate?
Yes. Nebraska imposes a 1% state lodging tax on hotel and short-term rental stays statewide, in addition to whatever county lodging tax and, in some cities, municipal occupation tax also apply.
2. What is Nebraska's hotel tax?
Nebraska's hotel tax combines a 1% state lodging tax with a county lodging tax that most counties set at 4%, plus a separate city occupation tax in places like Omaha and Lincoln. Terms like hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all refer to this same charge.
3. What is Nebraska's lodging tax?
Nebraska's lodging tax is the 1% state-level charge established under the Nebraska Visitors Development Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 81-3701 through 81-3729, which also authorizes counties to add their own lodging tax on top.
4. How long does a guest need to stay in Nebraska to avoid paying lodging tax?
A stay of 30 continuous days or longer is exempt from Nebraska's lodging tax. The exemption applies from day one only if the hotel has a written or verbal agreement in place with the guest from the start of the stay; otherwise tax is collected until the 30-day mark is actually reached, then credited.
5. Does Nebraska require hotels to disclose all fees upfront?
Nebraska does not have its own state law requiring hotels to display an all-in price that includes taxes and mandatory fees. Federal rules from the Federal Trade Commission require upfront disclosure of mandatory fees on booking sites, but no Nebraska-specific pricing transparency statute for lodging has been identified.
6. Who is responsible for filing and remitting Nebraska's lodging tax?
The hotel or short-term rental operator is legally responsible for collecting the lodging tax from guests and remitting it to the state on Form 64, and separately to the city for any municipal occupation tax. The state assigns each operator a monthly or annual filing schedule based on taxable sales volume.
7. Why do Omaha and Lincoln have such different combined hotel tax rates than the rest of Nebraska?
Omaha and Lincoln are home rule cities that impose their own hotel occupation tax under separate municipal authority, on top of the state's 1% and their county's lodging tax. Most other Nebraska cities have no equivalent city-level tax, so their combined rate stops at the state and county layers alone.
