Tomorrow, the UK gets its first statutory tourist tax. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Edinburgh's visitor levy goes live Friday 24 July:

➡️ 5% on the accommodation cost, charged before VAT
➡️ First 5 nights only, year-round, whole council area
➡️ Applies to short lets, self-catering and aparthotels, not just hotels
➡️ Under the VAT threshold? Still liable. UK guests? They pay too.

Operators are the collectors. You charge it, you file it, first payment due October.

One detail worth checking today: stays booked and paid before 1 October 2025 are exempt. Your August calendar is a mix of levy and no-levy bookings.

The council projects up to £50m a year. The ASSC is pushing back hard, questioning whether the £5m housing fund attached to it is even lawful under the Act, and pointing out the levy stacks on top of one of the world's highest VAT rates.

And this is just city one. Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire follow in 2027.

The battleground we've tracked all summer, from Vienna to Spain, is now a UK reality. Margins, not bans.