On 1 April 2024 the municipal surcharge on Barcelona’s tourist tax reaches its final amount: €3.25 per person per night, up from €2.75 until March. What changes for hotels, tourist flats and cruise ships.
On 1 April 2024 the municipal surcharge on Barcelona’s tax on stays in tourist establishments reaches its final amount: €3.25 per person per night, instead of the €2.75 that applied until 31 March. It is not a new decision by the city council but the last step in a timetable of increases set out in tax ordinance 2.2, definitively approved by the Municipal Council plenary on 23 December 2022.
How €3.25 was reached
The surcharge was created under Law 5/2020, which allows the city council to set by ordinance a surcharge of up to €4 for each category of establishment on the regional tax rates for ‘Barcelona city’. The ordinance began to apply on 1 June 2021, with that start date set because of the exceptional situation of the tourism sector after the pandemic, and provided for a transitional period of gradual increases: €0.75 between 1 June 2021 and 31 March 2022, €1.75 until 31 March 2023 and €2.75 until 31 March 2024.
From 1 April 2024 the amount in article 2 applies: €3.25 per stay, per day or fraction, regardless of the type of establishment. The ordinance’s table sets €3.25 for five-star and grand-luxury hotels, four-star and four-star superior hotels, tourist dwellings, other campsites and establishments, and cruise vessels, whether the stay exceeds 12 hours or not. The legal ceiling for the surcharge is €4, so any further increase would require amending the ordinance.
How it applies
The surcharge is added to the amount of the regional tax, which still depends on the category of establishment. The taxable event is the stay, with or without an overnight, in the tourist establishments and facilities subject to the tax in the city of Barcelona. The amount due is the number of stays multiplied by the rate, and its collection is managed through an agreement between the city council and the Catalan Tax Agency.
Settlement follows the calendar of the regional tax, in six-month periods: April to September, paid in December, and October to March, paid in June. The new amount therefore affects stays from 1 April and will be reflected in the December settlement.
What it has meant so far
According to the city council’s data, revenue from the surcharge was about €3.4 million in 2021, about €30.2 million in 2022 and about €65.2 million in 2023, as the steps in the timetable were applied. The ordinance explains that the city receives a growing flow of visitors, equivalent to an average floating population of some 154,000 people, 9.6% more than the resident population, with excess costs for some public services.
According to the ordinance, the city council uses this income to improve control of homes that let rooms for tourist use, to improve the quality of life of residents of the neighbourhoods under most tourist pressure and to create content that helps spread tourism more widely. Surcharge income is not part of the Generalitat’s fund for the promotion of tourism.
For hotels, apartments, tourist dwellings and cruise lines, the change means checking that management software, published rates and contracts with intermediaries reflect the correct amount from 1 April. For anyone arranging stays or group trips in Barcelona, the surcharge is added to the regional amount. Ask your tax adviser how it applies to your case.
Barcelona’s tourist surcharge stands at €3.25 per person per night from 1 April 2024.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
