How a Visitor Levy calculation works
Every figure this product shows — from the free calculator to a full quarterly return — is produced by exactly one calculation engine, following the same steps every time. No number is ever hand-adjusted or recomputed differently depending on where it's shown.
Scheme details last reviewed: 17 August 2026.
One calculation engine, every entry point
The free calculator on this site, a booking entered manually into your account, and a thousand-row spreadsheet import all run through the identical Laravel calculation engine — the same function, the same rules, applied the same way. There is no separate “quick estimate” logic and no separate “real” logic: a figure the free calculator shows for a given stay will always match what you'd get importing that same booking into a full return, because it is, literally, the same code path. This is why we can say a return never drifts from what the free calculator would have shown for any individual stay.
The calculation, step by step
1. Match the property to a council scheme
Every calculation starts by matching your property to a jurisdiction — either directly, if you've set it explicitly, or by matching the council area you entered against the list of active jurisdictions. If no scheme can be matched, the booking is treated as exempt and flagged for review rather than guessed at.
2. Work out liability night by night against the scheme's effective window
Council schemes are versioned — a scheme can be proposed, in consultation, confirmed, live, or superseded. Liability is assessed against each night of the stay, not once for the booking as a whole from check-in date alone. A stay entirely before a scheme's effective date is wholly exempt — a legitimate outcome, not a data problem — but a stay that straddles the effective date is split: the nights before are exempt, and the nights on or after run through the rest of the calculation and are charged normally.
3. Check the booking-date cutoff, if the scheme has one
Some schemes exempt bookings made or paid for before a transitional cutoff date, even if the stay itself falls after the scheme went live. Edinburgh's scheme, for example, has a cutoff of 1 October 2025 — a booking paid before that date is exempt regardless of when the stay happens.
4. Work out the chargeable nights
Most schemes cap the number of nights per stay that are actually chargeable. Edinburgh's cap is 5 nights: an 8-night stay only has its first 5 nights counted toward the levy, however long the stay actually runs.
5. Work out the eligible accommodation amount
If a per-night price is available for every night of the stay, the eligible amount is the sum of the first N chargeable nights' actual prices — this is the most accurate method. If only a whole-stay total is available and the stay exceeds the night cap, the total is pro-rated: eligible amount = total × (chargeable nights ÷ total nights). If the stay doesn't exceed the cap at all, the full accommodation amount is eligible.
6. Classify the cleaning fee, then exclude fees the levy doesn't apply to
The levy applies to the accommodation amount only, on a pre-VAT basis under every scheme currently confirmed. Platform fees and genuinely optional extras are always excluded — but a cleaning fee is classified first: a charge marked mandatory (a required changeover fee every guest pays as part of the stay) is added into the levy base, while one marked optional is excluded, the same as any other extra. When a cleaning fee is present but its classification isn't known, it's excluded from the base for now and the calculation is flagged requires review, rather than guessed in either direction. Where a property has bundled breakfast enabled with a per-guest-per-night value configured, that value is deducted from the chargeable nights' eligible amount too, capped so it can never exceed the eligible amount itself.
7. Apply the rate, then the provider retention allowance
The eligible amount is multiplied by the scheme's percentage rate to give the gross levy. A provider retention percentage — an administrative allowance the scheme permits the accommodation provider to retain — is then deducted from the gross figure to give the estimated net amount due to the council.
Worked example — Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the only council with a confirmed, live scheme at the time of writing: a 5% rate, a 5-night chargeable cap, a pre-VAT accommodation-only base, and a 2% provider retention allowance, effective from 24 July 2026.
| Stay length | 8 nights |
| Accommodation total | £800.00 (whole-stay total, no per-night breakdown) |
| Chargeable nights (step 4) | min(8, 5 night cap) = 5 nights |
| Eligible amount (step 5) | £800.00 × (5 ÷ 8) = £500.00, pro-rated because only a total was available |
| Gross levy (step 7) | £500.00 × 5.00% = £25.00 |
| Provider retention (step 7) | £25.00 × 2.00% = £0.50 |
| Estimated net amount due | £25.00 − £0.50 = £24.50 |
This is real seeded scheme data, not an illustrative approximation — you can reproduce this exact result on the free calculator by selecting Edinburgh, an 8-night stay, and an £800 total.
What this methodology deliberately doesn't do
It doesn't submit anything to a council. This product prepares figures and a supporting audit trail for your own quarterly return — filing the actual return, and paying what's owed, remains your responsibility as the accommodation provider. See our Security & Privacy page for the full architecture, including exactly what we don't claim.
It doesn't guess at a council's rules. We only mark a scheme “live” once it has been independently verified against official council guidance — every other council beyond Edinburgh currently has no live scheme, and this methodology page will be updated as more schemes are confirmed.