City Tax in Vilnius

The tax applies to all guests using accommodation services, regardless of whether the service is provided by a legal or natural entity acting under a business certificate issued by the State Tax Inspectorate in accordance with the relevant code of classification of economic activities for leasing premises for the provision of accommodation services;

On 7 December 2017, the Council of Vilnius City approved Decision No 1-126 on “Regulations for local fees for use of the Vilnius municipal public tourism and recreation infrastructure”. The purpose of the decision, effective as of 1 July 2018, is to boost the competitiveness of Vilnius, to develop international marketing in tourism, attract larger flows of tourists to the city of Vilnius, and increase the volumes of export services. The objectives pursued are expected to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life in Vilnius. The tax will be charged on guests of the city who are provided accommodation services and who use the public tourism and recreation infrastructure of  Vilnius. 

The €2 fee will come into effect for all guests checking into Vilnius accommodation establishments from 1 January 2024 at 12:00 am. Tourists arriving in Vilnius as early as December 2023 and staying up to and including January will be charged €1.

Overnight stays provided during the transitional period, even if they continue in January 2024, must be declared together with overnight stays provided in December 2023.

Yes, the tax will be charged upon all natural persons staying in accommodation entities operating in the territory of the City of Vilnius.

Yes, the tax must be paid by all natural persons staying at accommodation facilities located within the territory of Vilnius City Municipality, regardless of their declared place of residence.

If guests who do not belong to any category exempt of the tourist tax (disabled, schoolchildren, etc.) are staying at a hotel, this tax must be applied. Therefore, when guests are staying free of charge, this stay (for each overnight) has to be paid for by either by the guest themselves or the inviting party (agency, state authority or hotel that is providing the tourist with a free service).

Tourist tax will not be applicable for foreign nationals who are war refugees and who have used accommodation services in Vilnius free of charge or at a special reduced price (cost price). 

Yes, the tax is valid year-round, except during the quarantine valid in Vilnius.

The tax is charged by the City of Vilnius, rather than companies or persons providing accommodation services.

No, the tax is not subject to VAT.

No, corporate income tax shall not be charged upon the amounts of the city tax. Based on the provisions of Section III of 10 Business Accounting Standards, the Law on Income Tax treats only the increase in the economic benefit of an entity as income. Any amounts collected on behalf of third parties are not recognised as income, because they do not increase the economic benefit of an entity or increase its equity. The income of the intermediaries is the commission fee only, rather than any amounts collected on behalf of third parties.

Each accommodation service provider shall, within the framework of its corporate accounting system, introduce the tax as a new service, i.e., when issuing an invoice, the tax shall be presented in a separate line, as well as in the cash register receipt; in case the payment is recorded by issuing a cash receipt, the tax shall be included in the gross amount, though the service will be singled out in a separate line.

When performing banking operations (transfers), the standard fees for your banking services and operations apply, depending on the banking service plan and programme that you selected.

Unpaid local taxes will be recovered from the local tax payer in accordance with the procedure laid down by laws of the Republic of Lithuania:

• The Tax Subdivision of the Finance and Economy Division of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration produces a summary of arrears for each tax payer separately;
• in accordance with the summary, notifications are sent to the payers about the arrears and the obligation to pay the local tax for the use of Vilnius City Municipality’s public infrastructure for tourism and recreation within 20 calendar days from the date of the reminder;
• if the payer fails to pay the tax by the due date, a reminder is sent by registered letter and debt recovery procedures are initiated:
• the outstanding balance of the local tax for the use of Vilnius City Municipality’s public infrastructure for tourism and recreation is reconciled with a tax payer in arrears and a deed of debt reconciliation is drawn up;
• a payment deferral and rescheduling agreement may be concluded by mutual agreement between the parties in accordance with a deed of debt reconciliation;
• in case of failure to comply with/conclude a deferral and rescheduling agreement, the Tax Subdivision of the Finance and Economy Division of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration submits requests for the payment of the arrears of the local tax for the use of the Vilnius City Municipality’s public infrastructure for tourism and recreation to the Legal Group of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration, in accordance with the limitation period for bringing an action (five years) laid down in Clause 9 of Article 1.125 of Chapter 7 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania.

For more information on the procedure for the recovery of unpaid local tax, please refer to the description of the procedure for the recovery of arrears of the local tax for the use of the public tourism and recreation infrastructure of Vilnius City No 30-2127/20

If a long-term lease continues on to the next month, you have to declare data for the month that the long-term lease ends.

Yes, you must complete and submit the declaration, entering the actual number of overnight stays, i.e. “0”.

If you have already submitted a declaration for September, you do not need to edit the declaration by entering the number of Airbnb nights. We kindly ask you to do this from next month (i.e. when declaring the nights for October 2020).

Yes, the number of these overnight stays must be declared in box 9, “AirBnB”, and the tourist tax will not be calculated for them. The AirBnB platform adds the tourist fee to the rental price paid by the guest and transfers it directly to Vilnius City Municipality.

No, when declaring the number of overnight stays provided to foreign nationals who have fled the war, you do not have to distinguish between overnight stays for children and overnight stays for adults. All overnight stays provided to foreign nationals who have fled the war must be declared in box 8, specifying the total number of children and adults.

Yes, the tourist tax is collected for guests who stay at a hotel or rent a flat for work, provided that it is not a long-term lease (30 days or more).

Only one declaration can be submitted for the previous reference period. In the event of corrections, please include them in the following month’s declaration, by indicating higher/lower numbers of nights which would be equal to the total number of nights provided for the two months.

The Tourist Tax can be paid directly through a system for declaring overnight stays, which will direct the payer to Foxpay.lt, the administrator of these payments, via the e-Government Gateway. In case of technical or other problems, you can pay the Tourist Tax on the basis of the declaration submitted to the collecting account of Vilnius City Municipality Administration:
Vilnius City Municipality Administration
Payment code: 188710061 
Luminor bank AB 
LT 04 4010 0510 0427 9673
Be sure to write the period for which you are paying in the subject line and the unique number of the declaration being paid.

To log in to the tourist tax system, to submit declarations for provided short-stay accommodation to tourists and to pay collected tourist tax can:

• Natural and legal persons licensed to provide short-term accommodation services or providing such services on the basis of a business licence or certificate of individual activity in the territory of Vilnius Municipality;
• Authorised natural or legal persons who have been delegated by the manager or representative of an establishment providing short-stay accommodation, under a licence or business licence/personal activity certificate, to administer and pay tourist tax declarations via the Tourist Tax Declaration and Payment System;
• Natural or legal persons to whom the manager or representative of an establishment providing short-stay accommodation services has transferred the login details to the official account of the accommodation establishment via the e-Government Gateway, in accordance with the licence or business licence/individual activity certificate issued.

Overnight stays in Vilnius City must be declared and the tourist tax must be paid only online by signing up to the Tourist Tax Declaration and Payment System.

For the first login to the system and to submit/edit the information on the represented objects for which declarations will be submitted, please refer to the system user guide.

This guide also contains information on how to designate the authorised persons who will administer the tourist tax declaration on your behalf and/or on behalf of the company you represent, as well as other useful information to ensure a smooth declaration process.

If you discontinue the provision of short-stay accommodation, or if your authorisation rights to represent and submit tourist tax declarations in the system are suspended, please contact the system administrator in writing at [email protected] with a request to remove the contacts you have in the system from the list of the system users who receive the updates.