A. There is hereby levied an hotel tax of seven percent (7%) upon the gross proceeds or gross receipts derived from the advertised rent from every occupancy of a room or rooms in a hotel within Osage Nation jurisdiction, including hotels owned by the Osage Nation, except that the tax shall not be imposed where the rent is less than Ten Dollars ($10.00) per day.

B. No tax shall be imposed hereunder upon a person honorably discharged from active service in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States or National Guard and who have been certified by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or its successor to be in receipt of disability compensation at the one hundred percent (100%) rate and the disability shall be permanent and have been sustained through military action or accident or resulting from disease contracted while in such active service or the surviving spouse of such person if the person is deceased and the spouse has not remarried.

C. No tax shall be imposed hereunder upon the United States insofar as it is immune from taxation, nor on any state, county, or municipality.

D. The tax to be collected shall be stated and charged separately from the rent and shall be shown separately on any record thereof at the time when the occupancy is arranged or contracted and charged for, and upon every evidence of occupancy or any bill, statement or charge made for such occupancy issued or delivered by the operator. The tax shall be paid by the occupant to the operator as trustee for and on account of the Tax Commission and the operator shall be liable for the collection thereof and for the payment of the tax. The operator and any officer of any corporate operator shall be personally liable for the tax collected or required to be collected under this Title, and the operator shall have the same right in respect to collecting the tax from the occupant or in respect to nonpayment of the tax by the occupant as if the tax were a part of the rent for the occupancy payable at the same time such tax shall become due and owing, including all rights of eviction, dispossession, repossession and enforcement of any innkeeper’s lien that the Tax Commission may have in the event of nonpayment of rent by the occupant.

E. Such taxes, penalty and interest due hereunder shall at all times constitute a prior, superior and paramount claim as against the claim of unsecured creditors and may be collected by suit as any other debt.

F. Where the occupant has failed to pay and the operator has failed to collect a tax as imposed by this chapter, then, in addition to all other rights, obligations and remedies provided, such tax shall be payable by the occupant directly to the Tax Commission and it shall be the duty of the occupant to file a return thereof with the Tax Commission and to pay the tax imposed thereon to the Tax Commission within fifteen (15) days after such tax was due.

G. The Tax Commission may, whenever it deems it necessary for the proper enforcement of this chapter, provide by regulation that the occupant shall file returns and pay directly to the Tax Commission the tax herein imposed at such times as returns are required to be filed and payment over made by the operator.

H. The tax imposed by this section shall be paid upon any occupancy on or after the passage of this Act by the Osage Nation Congress, although such occupancy is had pursuant to a contract, lease or other arrangement made prior to such passage. Where rent is paid, charged, billed or falls due on either a weekly or other term basis, the rent so paid, charged, billed or falling due shall be subject to the tax herein imposed to the extent that it covers any portion of the period after passage of this Act, and such payment, bill, charge or rent due shall be apportioned on the basis of the ratio of the number of days falling within such portion to the total number of days covered thereby. Where any tax has been paid hereunder upon any rent which has been ascertained to be worthless, the Tax Commission may, by regulation, provide for credit or refund of the amount of such tax upon application as provided herein.

I. For the purpose of the proper administration of this chapter, and to prevent evasion of the tax hereby imposed, it shall be presumed that all rentals are subject to the tax until facts to the contrary are established; and the burden of providing that a rent for occupancy is not taxable hereunder shall be upon the operator or the occupant.

J. No operator shall advertise or hold out to the public in any manner, directly or indirectly, that the tax imposed by this chapter is not considered as an element in the rent charged to the occupant. ONCA 06-10, eff. Sept. 29, 2006; ONCA 15-21, eff. Apr. 10, 2015; ONCA 23-52, eff. Apr. 24, 2023.