The Maine lodging tax is a 9% sales tax on short-term rentals of living quarters, including hotels, motels, inns, bed-and-breakfasts, vacation rentals, and campgrounds. If you rent out accommodations for stays shorter than 28 consecutive days, you’re generally responsible for collecting the tax from your guests and sending it to Maine Revenue Services. The rate has been 9% since 2016 and applies to the full rental charge, including cleaning fees and service charges bundled into the price.
A guest paying $250 a night owes $22.50 in tax, for a total of $272.50. Maine requires you to either list the tax as a separate line on the receipt or state that the price already includes Maine sales tax. Most operators itemize it, because guests expect to see it broken out and it avoids confusion during an audit.
Who Has to Register and Collect
Maine’s sales tax statute defines “taxable service” broadly. “Living quarters” covers sleeping rooms, housekeeping accommodations, and tent or trailer space, which means traditional hotels and Airbnb-style rentals fall under the same obligation. Before you collect any tax, you must register with Maine Revenue Services and obtain a sales tax registration certificate. The application is free through the Maine Tax Portal.
The Casual Rental Exemption
Not every homeowner with a spare room has to register. If you have only one rental unit and rent it fewer than 15 days in a calendar year, Maine doesn’t treat you as a retailer and you don’t collect the tax. Cross 15 days in a year and the full registration and collection rules apply.
The federal side echoes this cutoff, though it’s a separate rule. If you use the property as a personal home and rent it for fewer than 15 days during the year, you don’t report the rental income on your federal return at all. For owners who rent a vacation home only during peak weeks, that means the rental income can be effectively tax-free at the federal level.
When Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com Collects for You
Since October 2019, marketplace facilitators like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com have been required to register with Maine Revenue Services and collect and remit sales tax on the transactions they facilitate, including the 9% lodging tax. If you list your property exclusively through one of these platforms, the platform handles collection and payment for those bookings.
That doesn’t let you off the hook entirely. You still need to be registered with Maine Revenue Services. On your own return, you report platform-facilitated bookings as exempt sales because the facilitator already collected and remitted the tax. Ask the platform for a written statement confirming it handles tax on your behalf and keep it in your records. Without that statement, you could be liable if the platform fails to remit.
Any bookings you take directly, outside the platform, remain your responsibility. If you mix platform and direct bookings, track the two streams separately.
Exemptions You Should Know
Stays of 28 Days or Longer
The most common exemption is for long-term stays. If a guest stays continuously for 28 days or more at the same property, the rental is exempt, but only if the guest either doesn’t maintain a primary residence elsewhere or is staying away from their primary residence for work or school. Employers renting lodging for their employees for 28 or more consecutive days in connection with employment also qualify.
Here’s what trips people up: you collect the tax during the first 28 days because you don’t yet know whether the guest will stay long enough. Once the stay crosses 28 days, you refund the tax you already collected. If you’ve already remitted it to the state, take a credit on the return you file for the month you issued the refund.
Government, Nonprofit, and Student Housing
Government employees on official business are exempt only when the lodging is paid directly by the agency. If the employee pays personally and gets reimbursed later, the exemption doesn’t apply. Nonprofits need an exemption certificate issued by the State Tax Assessor, and the stay must relate directly to the organization’s exempt purpose. Educational institutions providing dormitory-style long-term housing to enrolled students are also exempt.
Filing Frequency and Due Dates
Maine Revenue Services assigns your filing frequency based on your average monthly tax liability:
- Monthly if your average liability is $600 or more per month.
- Quarterly if it’s at least $100 but less than $600 per month, with quarters running January–March, April–June, July–September, and October–December.
- Semiannually if it’s under $100 per month but more than $50 per year, covering January–June and July–December.
- Annually if it’s under $50 per year, covering the full calendar year.
Returns are due by the 15th of the month following the end of each reporting period. A quarterly filer covering January through March files and pays by April 15. Seasonal operators often qualify for quarterly filing, but a busy summer can push you into monthly territory the next year if your average liability rises.
Penalties for Missing a Filing or Payment
Under Section 187-B of Title 36, an operator who doesn’t file a required return or doesn’t pay an assessed tax owes a penalty of 1% of the unpaid amount for each month or partial month the tax remains outstanding, calculated from the original due date, capped at 25% of the unpaid tax.
If Maine Revenue Services issues a formal demand for an unfiled return and you still don’t file within 60 days, the penalty jumps to $25 or 25% of the tax due, whichever is greater. If you exhaust all appeals on an assessment and don’t pay within 10 days of receiving a demand notice, a flat 25% penalty applies to the full amount owed. Interest also accrues on unpaid tax from the original due date, and persistent non-compliance can lead to revocation of your sales tax registration certificate.
If You’ve Been Renting Without Collecting
Maine’s voluntary disclosure program can save you significant money in penalties if you come forward before the state contacts you. The standard lookback is three years: you’ll owe tax and interest for the prior three years of unreported activity, and the state waives penalties. One important exception: if you actually collected tax from guests but never sent it to Maine, the lookback extends as far back as necessary to recover every dollar you collected. Applications go through the Maine Tax Portal and require an estimate of what you owe plus an explanation.
If Maine Revenue Services assesses you and you disagree, you can file a petition for reconsideration. Miss the petition deadline and you lose your right to further review, so act quickly if a notice arrives.
Records You Need to Keep
Maine requires you to keep records of every transaction subject to the lodging tax for at least six years. Keep invoices, receipts, documentation of any exemptions guests claimed, and records showing how much tax you collected and remitted each period. Records must be organized well enough that a Maine Revenue Services auditor can inspect them on request.
Electronic records are held to specific standards under Rule 103. Your digital records need enough detail for an auditor to reconstruct each booking: guest name, dates, rental amount, tax charged, and tax status. If your accounting software uses coded fields, you must be able to provide a key that lets an auditor read them. In practice this means keeping a short written description of your booking and accounting process and not deleting old records from your property management software.
Local Rules Are Separate
The 9% state tax isn’t the whole compliance picture. Properties in areas under the Land Use Planning Commission must submit a notice form to LUPC; existing short-term rentals in LUPC territory have until July 11, 2026 to file, and new rentals can’t begin operating until the form is submitted. Many municipalities also have their own registration or licensing rules for short-term rentals, so check with your local code enforcement office before you list.