A temporary reduced VAT rate of 5% applies to children's meals served at qualifying catering establishments between 25 June 2026 and 1 September 2026 inclusive. You can use this guide to configure your systems correctly before the change takes effect on 25 June 2026, and to reverse those changes when the standard 20% rate resumes from 2 September 2026.

For full details on the UK Government policy, we recommend you read the Gov UK Policy Paper to ensure this policy is applied correctly for your specific property and offerings.

Follow the steps below to configure Guestline Property Management System (PMS) for the temporary VAT change and to reverse those changes from 2 September 2026.

Here is a quick overview of the actions to be completed:

Before creating a new tax rule, check whether a 5% tax rule already exists in your system. You can check this by navigating to System, Configuration, then select Tax Rules. Reusing an existing rule helps maintain consistency and prevents duplication.

If you do not have a 5% tax rate, use our support guide to create a tax rule.

Use our support article to create a new analysis code within the system, linked to your 5% VAT tax rule.

You can create as many Analysis Codes as required to suit your reporting needs.

For example, here is an analysis code created and linked to a 5% tax rule:

Print your End of Week and End of Month reports before the tax change takes effect, to retain an accurate record of pre-change figures.

To link the analysis code to your existing children's food products, follow the steps below:

Review all of your products to check whether you need to create any new ones.

For example, if you have a family meal package, you may want to split adult and child items. The analysis code set within each product determines the tax rule applied to it.

Use our support guide to create a product, and link it to the correct analysis code.

On the day of the change, resident bookings and reservations arriving that day will post at the correct tax breakdown automatically, as long as you have updated the relevant analysis codes.

Any future bookings must be re-saved for the background tax calculation to update and for forecasting reports to reflect the new breakdown.

Use the Reservation Re-save feature to action this. After the re-save, carry out a random rate check to confirm children's food items are showing at the correct rates.

From 2 September 2026, the standard 20% VAT rate resumes for children's meals.

Follow the steps below to revert your configuration following the end-of-day closure for 01.09.2026:

You do not need to delete the 5% analysis code from your system, as this will still be required for reporting purposes.

A change in tax during the reporting period affects financial reports. Use posting or financial audit reports to view tax values before and after the change. To view an analysis code report, follow the steps below.

If you use Financial Export reports, use our support guide to Expose and configure new Pay Types, Analysis Codes or Tax Rules once configuration has been completed for 25 June 2026 and again on 2 September 2026 following reversal of the VAT rate.

If you use OmniBoost, contact their support team or visit their Help Centre to gain assistance with updating settings for this legislation.

You can create specific offer packages for online sale during the temporary VAT period using product rules.

Use product rules to combine multiple items into a package for online sale. See our article on using product rules to offer packages online in DBM and GuestStay for full steps.

Remove or deactivate any packages created specifically for the 5% VAT period from 2 September 2026. Ensure any remaining packages that include children's meals reflect the standard 20% VAT analysis codes.

You will also need to update your EPOS systems - reach out to your EPOS and tills providers for further details.

Here are some useful links:

Keep your team informed throughout the VAT change period to reduce errors at the point of sale.