Commonly referred to as TOT, Transit Occupancy Tax is collected from visitors to the City of Mt. Shasta in lieu of a sales tax on their lodging. The tax is collected on behalf of the City by the lodging operator at the time of room rental, and remitted to the City on a regular basis. The TOT currently provides about one-sixth the of the City’s General Fund budget.
The Transient Occupancy Tax helps to offset the burdens placed on City services and infrastructure by visitors to the City. Some of the many things that TOT helps to pay for are:
- maintenance of streets
- snow plowing
- street lights
- traffic signals, and
- public safety services such as police, fire, and medical aid
Since the City of Mt. Shasta is a vacation destination, this makes visitors a significant portion of the daytime population of the City during much of the year.
Transient Occupancy Tax is currently 10 percent of the room and lodging charges (applied to all lodging within city limits).