THE City of Edinburgh Council today held the first of two meetings that will see a proposed tourist tax introduced in the capital.
Councillors predicted that the tax could raise £50m a year, and also discussed how this money would be spent.
Next week there will be another meeting to vote for a second time on the tourist tax proposals with the full City of Edinburgh Council attending.
The meeting today saw councillors agree on the motion with seven votes, the next meeting will now decide the fate of the tourist tax proposals.
Councillors also proposed and voted on amendments to the tourist tax with each party presenting.
If the tourist tax is passed by the council and introduced, it could come into effect as early as May 2025.
A number of professional bodies and businesses have urged the council to pause in the introduction of the tax though, with concerns over allowing businesses enough time to adjust to the new tax and how it will be collected.
The council, however, is powering through with introducing the tax as soon as possible, in turn becoming the first local authority in Scotland to do so.
Speaking in the Edinburgh Reporter today, Garry Clark of the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland (FSB) said: “Over the past two years, FSB Scotland has been bringing small local accommodation providers round the table with The City of Edinburgh Council in a series of discussions to help officials understand how their policy of a local Visitor Levy might impact these businesses.”
“Some of the outputs of these discussions have helped shape the council’s current Visitor Levy proposal, though FSB Scotland still has some concerns about the timing of the scheme and some of the proposed spending priorities.
“As the voice of Scotland’s small business community, we are bound to articulate these concerns through the democratic process and seek to achieve further changes to improve the Visitor Levy scheme to ensure that it works better for Edinburgh’s visitor economy.”
A council spokesperson commented: “While there is no requirement for businesses to collect the levy at the point of booking, with accommodation providers able to choose how best to implement it according to their own business practices, visitors must be made aware of the final price of their accommodation in order to comply with UK consumer laws.
“Accommodation providers will only need to submit a return and pay the council the required levy amount from the end of September 2026 and businesses will be given reasonable time to complete this return.”
