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Kyoto to Raise Lodging Tax By Up to 10x, Highest in Japan
It’ll raise the top tax on the city’s most expensive hotel rooms to 10,000 yen per night.
With more tourists — both domestic and inbound — traveling into Japan than ever, municipalities are looking for ways to collect additional revenue they can use to help handle the influx. This week, Kyoto announced its intentions to drastically raise its loading tax by up to ten times for the city’s most expensive properties.
Kyoto already imposes a sliding scale tax on rooms based on their cost per night. The cheapest rooms, costing under 6,000 yen (USD $37.99) a night, only carry a 200 yen ($1.27) per night tax. However, even the most expensive rooms only carry a 1,000 yen ($6.33) per night tax.
Under the new schedule, cheap rooms would still carry a low tax. However, for rooms that cost between 20,000 and 50,000 yen ($126-$316), travelers will now pay a 1,000 yen per night tax. That goes up to 4,000 yen ($25.33) for rooms up to 100,000 yen ($633) a night.
Travelers who like to be puttin’ on the ritz when they stay in hotels will pay the most. Taxes on a room over 100,000 yen will be a whopping 10,000 yen ($63) per night.
The tax will be the highest losing tax anywhere in Japan. The city projects it’ll raise around 13 billion yen ($82M) with the new tax…
