Visitor Levy for visitor accommodation providers: technical guidance - Visitor Levy and third-party arrangements

Whilst a visitor accommodation provider remains responsible for complying with Visitor Levy and their tax obligations, they may make arrangements with third parties that help meet their obligations.

Specifically, a visitor accommodation provider may enter into arrangements with one or more third parties to:

• collect amounts covering the levy in respect of overnight stays in their visitor accommodation
• make returns, or payments, of the levy to the WRA
• issue repayments of amounts collected covering the levy

Third parties may include online travel agents, booking platforms or other parties involved in the running of the visitor accommodation provider’s trade or business. In some cases, these parties may collection an amount to cover the levy on behalf of visitor accommodation providers and then pass this on to the provider along with other payments in respect of any bookings made through their platform.

Visitor accommodation providers cannot solely rely on third parties to meet their levy obligations, the responsibility for complying with the levy still lies with the visitor accommodation provider.