NH Rooms and Meals Tax: Rate, Filing, and Exemptions

New Hampshire’s Rooms and Meals Tax is a flat 8.5% charge on restaurant meals, short-term lodging, and motor vehicle rentals in the state.¹ Customers pay it at the register or checkout. The business collecting the money — restaurant, hotel, vacation rental host, car rental company, or the online platform booking the stay — sends it to the Department of Revenue Administration every month.

What’s Taxed at 8.5%

Three kinds of transactions trigger the tax: meals, room rentals, and motor vehicle rentals.²

Meals

A taxable meal is food or drink sold for eating on or off the premises of a restaurant, snack bar, or catering operation. Sit-down dinners, takeout, café coffee, and alcoholic drinks all count. So do prepared, ready-to-eat items sold at a grocery store, like deli sandwiches or party platters. Unprepared groceries you take home to cook are not taxed. The threshold is low: any meal costing $0.36 or more is taxable.³

Voluntary tips are never taxed. A mandatory service charge — like an automatic gratuity on a large party’s bill — can be, depending on how the restaurant structures it under RSA 78-A:6-a.⁴

Room Rentals

Any sleeping accommodation rented for fewer than 185 consecutive days is taxable. That sweeps in hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, vacation cabins, and short-term rentals booked through Airbnb, VRBO, and similar platforms.³ Once a guest reaches 185 consecutive days, the occupancy is treated as a permanent residence and the tax no longer applies from that point on.⁵

Motor Vehicle Rentals

Renting a car, truck, or other motor vehicle for 180 days or less is taxed at the same 8.5%.⁶ The tax applies to the full price charged to the customer, including any fees or service charges paid to a facilitator.³ Note the mismatch with room rentals: vehicles cut off at 180 days, rooms at 185. Operators handling both sometimes miss it.

What’s Exempt

The exemptions cluster around institutional settings where food or lodging is tied to a charitable, educational, medical, or governmental mission rather than to commercial hospitality.

Meals are not taxed when they are:⁷

Served on the premises of a religious or charitable organization in furtherance of its mission, with net proceeds going to that organization.
Provided by a 501(c)(3) educational organization to its students, employees, faculty, and volunteers. The exemption drops away if the meals are regularly offered to the general public.
Served to patients and employees at licensed hospitals, nursing homes, convalescent homes, and homes for the aged.
Served to inmates and employees at state, local, or federal institutions.
Provided at a seasonal children’s camp to campers under 18 and camp employees.
Served aboard trains, buses, or airplanes by the carrier operating the service.

Room rentals are not taxed when they involve:⁵

A guest who has already stayed 185 consecutive days or more.
Facilities operated by state or federal agencies, other than those run by the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development.
Facilities owned by a 501(c)(3) educational organization, when provided to students, employees, or participants in educational activities.
Nursing homes, convalescent homes, and homes for the aged.
Seasonal children’s camps for those under 18.

One point worth flagging, because it comes up often: a government employee traveling on official business is not automatically exempt from the tax at a regular hotel. The exemption is for rooms at government-operated facilities, not for any room a government employee happens to book. A hotel should not waive the tax on the strength of a government ID.

If You Sell Meals or Rent Rooms or Vehicles

Anyone who sells taxable meals or rents rooms or motor vehicles in New Hampshire is an “operator” and has to register with the Department of Revenue Administration before making a single taxable sale.⁸ The definition is broad. A restaurant qualifies, and so does a homeowner listing a spare bedroom on a vacation platform or a person renting out a car through a peer-to-peer app. Each physical location needs its own Meals and Rentals License. Applications go through Granite Tax Connect, the state’s online portal, though a paper option exists.²

The application asks for business name and address, contact information for owners or officers, and either a Federal Employer Identification Number or a Social Security Number for sole proprietors. One trap: the department will not issue or renew a license if you owe unpaid tax, interest, or penalties on any tax it administers, not just this one.⁸

Once you have a license, post it conspicuously in a public area at the business location. A first posting violation gets a warning; repeated violations can lead to suspension, revocation, or denial of the license.⁸

The statute also reaches “rental facilitators,” meaning any person or platform that helps book, arrange, or coordinate room or motor vehicle rentals.⁶ Airbnb, VRBO, and car-sharing apps doing business in New Hampshire have to get their own Meals and Rentals License and collect and remit the tax on the full price charged to the consumer.³ Before you register separately as a host, check whether the platform you use is already collecting on your behalf. Double-collection creates a mess for both you and the guest.

Filing and Paying Each Month

Licensed operators file returns monthly through Granite Tax Connect.² Each return reports total taxable receipts and the tax collected for the month. The deadline is the 15th of the following month, so January’s collections are due February 15th. If the 15th lands on a weekend or holiday, the deadline slides to the next business day.

Payment goes through the same portal by electronic funds transfer or other approved method. The state still accepts mailed checks with payment coupons, but electronic filing is what the department expects.⁹

Late Penalties and Interest

Missing a filing deadline gets expensive quickly. The penalty for a late return is 5% of the tax due or $10, whichever is greater, for each month or partial month the return stays unfiled. It caps at 25% of the tax due or $50, whichever is greater.¹⁰

Interest runs on top of the penalty. The underpayment rate for 2026 is 9% annually, set to the federal underpayment rate plus two points, and reset each year based on the rate in effect the prior September.¹¹ Because penalty and interest stack, an operator who lets several months slide can owe well more than the original tax.

Records to Keep

Hold onto everything tied to your Meals and Rooms Tax obligations — worksheets, filed returns, and confirmation numbers from electronic filings — for at least three years from the return’s due date or the date it was actually filed, whichever is later.¹ If you file electronically, print the monthly worksheet and file the hard copy with your records. The department can audit anytime during the retention window.

1
NH Department of Revenue Administration. Meals and Rentals Tax Booklet 2026
2
NH Department of Revenue Administration. Meals and Rooms (Rentals) Tax
3
NH Department of Revenue Administration. Meals and Rooms (Rentals) Tax FAQ
4
New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:6-a – Exception to Tax Gratuity Charges
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:6-d – Exception to Tax Occupancy
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:3 – Definitions
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:6-c – Exception to Tax Meals
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 78-A:4 – Registration Licenses
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NH Department of Revenue Administration. NH Department of Revenue Administration Shares 2025 Tax Updates and Filing Guidance
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New Hampshire General Court. New Hampshire Code 21-J:31 – Penalty for Failure to File
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NH Department of Revenue Administration. Interest Rates for Underpayment and Overpayment of Tax