[Koha] Edinburgh tourist tax

[MJ Ray]

"Dianna Roberts" <Dianna.Roberts at opus.co.nz>
> Be aware that Edinburgh applies a tourist tax to all hotel bookings at the
> rate of 20% per night. I discovered this when making a booking last night.

Are you sure?  A £2-a-night tax has been suggested but reports say
city governments don't have the legal powers to raise such a tax:
http://www.eturbonews.com/26930/minister-edinburghs-planned-tourist-tax-not-legal

The current UK rate of Value Added Tax is 20%, which might be what
that was.  To individuals, VAT behaves pretty much like a sales tax,
but I believe the law is that you must show tax-included prices to
them - and non-EU visitors can claim a tax refund when you leave.
More on this at http://wikitravel.org/en/United_Kingdom#Shopping
- other than that, VAT is evil because it taxes the poor more than
the rich, but our shiny-faced leader shows no sign of changing it in
the budget later this month, so a tax cut would be a surprise.

If you spot any Edinburgh sites that aren't aimed at business sales
quoting VAT-excluded prices, let us (software.coop) know and we'll
report them to local customer protection agents.

Anyway, if there is now a tourist tax, let me know more and I'll
update our notes, but I'm pretty sure there isn't one yet.

Hope that explains,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/