How to file your Edinburgh visitor levy return — without second-guessing the figure

From 24 July 2026, every accommodation provider in Edinburgh has to charge a 5% visitor levy and report it to the City of Edinburgh Council each quarter. The maths sounds simple — 5% — but the levy is charged on a specific figure, capped in a specific way, with two deductions that are easy to forget. Miss one and your return is wrong.

This guide walks through the whole thing: what the Council asks for, the five rules that set the number, and how to submit it. Every figure here is checked against the Council's published scheme.

What the return actually asks for

This is the part that surprises people. The Council's return does not ask you to type in a levy total. Instead, you report your accommodation-only revenue for each of the three months in the quarter, then two sets of deductions — and the Council's own spreadsheet works out the levy from those figures.

So filing the return is really three jobs:

1. Isolate the accommodation revenue — strip out VAT, meals, parking and anything that isn't the room.
2. Work out the deductions — revenue from bookings that pre-date the levy, and revenue from nights beyond the five-night cap.
3. Enter the monthly figures in the Council's spreadsheet and submit it.

The five rules that decide the figure

1. It's 5% of the accommodation cost before VAT

The levy is charged on the room revenue net of VAT — not the headline price the guest paid. If a guest pays £180 a night and that includes 20% VAT, the accommodation cost for the levy is £150, and the levy is 5% of £150. It is not charged on meals, parking, drinks or transport, even when those sit on the same invoice. (This VAT point trips up almost everyone — there's a full guide to the VAT interaction here.)

2. It's per room, per night — not per person

A double room with two guests is charged once, not twice. The levy follows the room, for each night it's occupied.

3. Only the first five nights of a stay are charged

The levy applies to a maximum of five consecutive nights. A guest staying seven nights is charged for five; nights six and seven are levy-free. The cap is per stay — splitting one stay across two booking rows doesn't reset it.

4. Some older bookings are exempt

Stays that were booked and paid (in part or full) before 1 October 2025 are not subject to the levy, even if the guest stays after it starts. That revenue becomes a deduction on the return.

5. You keep 2%

In the initial phase, providers retain 2% of the levy collected to cover the admin of running it. You remit the remaining 98% to the Council.

Filing it, step by step

1. Pull your bookings for the quarter from your PMS or channel manager — check-in/out dates, room revenue, rate codes.
2. Strip each booking down to accommodation-only revenue, net of VAT.
3. Apply the five-night cap to every stay, and flag any pre-1-October-2025 bookings.
4. Total it by month — month 1, 2 and 3 of the quarter, separately.
5. Total the two deductions by month — pre-eligibility bookings, and revenue beyond five nights.
6. Open the Council's return spreadsheet, choose your availability for the quarter, and enter the monthly accommodation revenue and deductions.
7. Submit on visitorlevy.scot before the deadline.

A worked example

One guest, a seven-night stay, paying £180 a night including VAT:

Note the two places this differs from a naive "5% of what they paid": the VAT is stripped first (£150, not £180), and only five of the seven nights count. On your return, the £150 × 5 nights of accommodation revenue goes into the month it falls in, and the two extra nights' revenue becomes a "beyond five nights" deduction.

The two deductions people miss

The accommodation revenue is the easy part. The deductions are where returns go wrong, because they require you to look back at how and when each booking was made:

Five costly mistakes

• Charging 5% of the VAT-inclusive price. Over-charges the guest and over-states the levy. Strip VAT first.
• Forgetting the five-night cap on longer stays and festival lets.
• Charging per person instead of per room.
• Including meals or parking in the accommodation figure.
• Missing the pre-October-2025 exemption on advance bookings.

Questions

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice, and figures reflect the City of Edinburgh Council scheme as published (confirm current details on visitorlevy.scot). LevyReady does not file returns on your behalf — the operator remains legally responsible for the accuracy of all submissions.