Staying in a hotel for 90 days? Remember you may not have to pay sales tax

CHARLOTTE — Many may end up living in hotels for months because of Helene.

Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke wants you to remember what North Carolina law says: if you stay at the same hotel for 90 days straight -- all under the same name -- you can stop paying sales tax on the room and even get reimbursed for the sales tax you already paid.

Crystal Hooks says she and her family called InTown Suites on Independence Boulevard home for about six months.

“We didn’t leave or anything like that. We was there the whole entire time,” she said.

Hooks showed Action 9 her receipt. The sales tax costs $26 for state and $21 for county for a total of $47 each day.

Hooks says she saw one of Stoogenke’s news reports on this topic so she knew to ask InTown Suites for a refund. She wasn’t sure exactly how much, but something.

“I was kind of hounding them about it,” she said.

She says the business said no, but that it did stop charging her sales tax after that and gave her two weeks rent for free. At $418 per week, that’s about $800. She wants this to be a lesson to others, no matter where they’re staying. “They don’t know and I feel like it is best for them to know, especially with family with kids, trying to make means meet,” she said.

Stoogenke tried to get in touch with InTown Suites multiple times in multiple ways since the end of August. He got an auto-reply saying his email was received but nothing else in time for this report.

If a hotel keeps charging you sales tax:

- Tell the hotel in writing that it’s supposed to stop charging you the tax and refund you.

- It has 60 days to respond.

- After that, you can report it to the state department of revenue.

- This isn’t ideal, but you may have to take legal action against the hotel on your own.

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