According to legislation.gov.uk, the Visitor Levy (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2026 was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 24 March 2026 and received Royal Assent on 21 May 2026. The Act amends the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 and is designed to settle a set of operational questions that emerged after the original framework was enacted. At a high level, the 2026 Act gives local authorities more than one way to structure a visitor levy, tightens the rules around who is charged in more complex booking arrangements, updates return and payment processes, and gives Scottish Ministers further regulation-making powers. It is a technical amending Act, but its effect is practical: councils now have a wider design choice, while accommodation providers and intermediaries face a clearer statutory scheme.
One of the most important changes is the insertion of a new choice about how the levy is charged. A local authority introducing a visitor levy scheme, or modifying one so that the charging basis changes, must now decide whether the levy will be set as a percentage rate or as a fixed amount. That choice has to be built into the scheme architecture from the outset. Where a council opts for a fixed amount model, the new section 6A requires the amount to be set for each night of a chargeable transaction and multiplied by the number of rooms or areas in which persons have the right to stay. The Act allows different fixed amounts for different purposes, different areas within a council area, and different categories of overnight accommodation. It also makes clear that rooms or areas to which no part of the amount paid relates are left out of the calculation. Scottish Ministers are given power to set maximum fixed amounts by regulations, but only after consultation with local authorities, communities, tourism businesses and other appropriate persons, with those regulations subject to the affirmative procedure.
The Act also creates a new mechanism for administrative cost recovery. Under new section 12A, a local authority may permit liable persons to deduct and retain an amount from the levy otherwise payable in respect of a chargeable transaction. The permitted deduction can be set as either a fixed amount or a percentage, and it may vary for different purposes. That power is not open-ended. The authority may use it only where it is satisfied that doing so is appropriate to reflect administrative costs incurred by the liable person in operating the scheme. The Act then allows Scottish Ministers to make regulations about how such deductions work in practice, including when councils may disallow them, the procedure to be followed, payment deadlines for unpaid levy after disallowance, and the consequences for penalty provisions. For operators, the policy direction is clear: some allowance for compliance costs is possible, but only within a controlled framework and only where the local scheme provides for it.
A further set of amendments deals with booking chains involving third parties. The 2026 Act inserts new rules into section 3 of the 2024 Act so that, where accommodation is first bought from the accommodation provider by a third party and then sold on to the person who ultimately stays, the chargeable transaction is the initial transaction rather than the later onward sale. The person who takes entry is treated as doing so in pursuance of that initial transaction. This change matters for online travel agents, resellers and similar intermediated models. It reduces the risk of multiple transactions in the same booking chain being treated as separately chargeable for levy purposes. The schedule reinforces that approach by updating billing, record-keeping and interpretation provisions so that the statute now refers expressly to subsequent transactions. It also inserts a safeguard that a scheme, or multiple schemes taken together, may impose only one levy in respect of the purchase of the right to stay in a particular room or area on a particular night.
Scheme design and modification rules are also tightened. Section 14 of the 2024 Act is amended so that a scheme must now specify the basis on which the levy is charged, whether by percentage or fixed amount, and state the relevant rate or amount. It must also state whether liable persons are allowed to deduct and retain an amount from levy payments and, if so, the permitted deduction. The timetable for significant modifications is now more detailed. If a scheme is already in force, modifications falling within section 14(4)(a) or (c) must take effect no earlier than 18 months after the local authority publishes its report stating that it intends to proceed. Increases to percentage rates, increases to fixed amounts, and switches between percentage and fixed-charge models under section 14(4)(b), (ba) and (bb) must take effect no earlier than six months after that report. If a scheme is not yet in force, the lead-in for a significant modification remains 18 months. The Act also includes transitional rules so that councils with existing or already-consulted-on schemes can make certain consequential adjustments without restarting the full consultation sequence.
Return, payment and enforcement provisions are updated to match the new charging model. Section 26 is amended so that returns can capture levy calculated under either the percentage-based rules or the new fixed-amount rules. A further new power allows Scottish Ministers to make regulations governing the amendment of returns, including when a liable person may request an amendment, when a council may amend a return on its own initiative, the relevant procedures, time limits and the effects on assessments, interest and penalties. The schedule then rewrites parts of the return and payment mechanism to account for permitted deductions. Where a scheme allows a deduction, returns must show the levy payable, the amount to be deducted and the resulting net amount. If a relevant local authority later imposes a penalty and decides that it relates to the relevant period, it may disallow the deduction and require payment of the full amount. Related provisions on penalties, reasonable excuse, interest on unpaid levy and summary warrant are amended to match that structure. There is also a temporary protection for liable persons where a failure to comply with return, record or payment duties for pre-commencement transactions may be attributable to the legislative modifications themselves.
The Act also expands the review and reporting duties around the levy regime. When a local authority reviews a scheme under section 21, it must now consider not only how the scheme is operating but also whether it should be modified or revoked. That introduces an express expectation that post-implementation review may lead to substantive change rather than simple monitoring. At national level, section 75 is amended so that the statutory report on the operation of the 2024 Act must address the impact of visitor levy schemes on businesses and communities, and on tourism in rural areas. A new section 75A goes further by allowing Scottish Ministers to make additional provision about the operation of Parts 2 and 3 of the Act, including how the levy is to be calculated, charged and paid in particular circumstances. As elsewhere in the Act, consultation duties apply before those regulations are made, and the applicable parliamentary procedure depends on whether the regulations amend primary legislation.
In commencement terms, the Act provides for most of Part 1, other than section 15, to come into force on the day after Royal Assent, which is 22 May 2026. A second group of provisions, including those on fixed-amount charging, third-party transactions, return changes, transitional arrangements and the relevant parts of the schedule, comes into force after a two-month lead-in beginning with the day of Royal Assent. The remaining provisions will be commenced by regulations made by Scottish Ministers. For councils, the immediate policy effect is greater flexibility in levy design, but with firmer procedural duties around consultation, notice periods and scheme content. For accommodation providers and booking intermediaries, the operational effect is a more detailed compliance framework covering invoicing, returns, record preservation and the treatment of onward sales. The Act is therefore less about expanding the principle of a visitor levy than about making the 2024 system workable in day-to-day administration.