Hospitality Welcomes 9% VAT Extension

Hotels, guesthouses and restaurants across the country have welcomed the announcement from Government that it is to extend the 9% VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality industry to the end of February 2023. This measure will go a long way to helping the industry recovery.

Given the challenges ahead, the Irish Hotels Federation is calling on the Government to further extend this measure out to 2025 in order to maintain international competitiveness with other European destinations.

IHF President Denyse Campbell said that the 9% VAT rate is the right rate to support recovery in Irish tourism and hospitality and enable the sector to rebuild following an exceptionally challenging two years – particularly in light of spiralling business costs.

She said that increasing the VAT rate to 13.5% as had been planned would have been counterproductive in terms of our international competitiveness.

Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants Association of Ireland welcomed the move on the lower VAT rate. He said it would help settle businesses ahead of what will be a bumpy tourist season.