If you run a restaurant, cafe, soft play centre, zoo or any kind of family attraction, a temporary VAT cut is about to land, and the window to prepare is short. From 25 June 2026 a reduced rate of 5% VAT applies to qualifying children's meals and family attraction tickets, in place of the usual 20%. It runs until 1 September 2026 and then everything snaps back to standard rate.
The saving is real, but so is the admin. Get the qualifying supplies wrong, set your till up late, or misread the timing rules, and you can either overcharge customers or land yourself with a VAT correction. Here is what HMRC's Revenue and Customs Brief 5 (2026) actually says, in plain English, and what to do in the next two weeks.
In a nutshell
- The 5% rate runs 25 June to 1 September 2026. After that, back to 20%.
- Only meals sold as children's meals qualify. Eat in only, and takeaway does not count.
- A defined list of family attractions qualifies. Zoos, soft play, museums and more, but not sport.
- Timing follows the visit, not the payment. A ticket used after 1 September stays at 20%.
- Family tickets can be wholly at 5%. If a single price includes at least one child.
- Set up your till and accounting now. And decide how to treat prepayments already taken.
1. What has changed and the key dates
The government has introduced a temporary reduced rate of VAT as part of a summer support package for families and the hospitality and leisure sector. For qualifying supplies made between 25 June 2026 and 1 September 2026 inclusive, the VAT rate falls from the standard 20% to 5%.
This is UK wide, and it is temporary. There is no taper and no extension built in. On 2 September 2026 the standard rate applies again to everything. So this is a ten week window that you have to switch on, run, and then switch off cleanly.
2. Which meals for children qualify
A children's meal qualifies for the 5% rate only where all of these are true:
- It is held out for sale specifically as a meal for a child. A meal that is simply a smaller portion of an adult dish, sold from the main menu, does not automatically count.
- It is supplied in the course of catering, by a restaurant, cafe or similar business.
- It is for consumption on the premises. Eat in qualifies; takeaway and off premises do not.
Helpfully, food includes drink here, so the juice or milkshake sold as part of the children's meal is in scope. What does not qualify: adult meals, anything taken away, and supplies that are already exempt stay exempt. Alcohol is never part of a children's meal, so it stays at 20% as normal.
The practical point is presentation. If you want the lower rate, your children's menu needs to be a genuine, clearly held out children's offering, not an afterthought.
3. Which family attractions qualify
The reduced rate applies to admission to a defined list of family attractions, including:
- Circuses, fairs, amusement parks and adventure parks
- Soft play centres
- Zoos, farm visitor attractions and nature reserves
- Observation attractions such as viewing towers and wheels
- Museums and similar cultural facilities
- Shows, exhibitions, theatres, concerts and cinemas, for child or family admissions that include children
What is specifically excluded: sports events and sporting facilities, physical education and recreation events, and any admissions that are already exempt from VAT. So a soft play centre is in, but a children's football session sold as a sporting activity is not.
If you are not sure which side of the line your attraction sits on, that is exactly the kind of judgement worth checking before you change your pricing, because getting it wrong means repaying the difference to HMRC later.
4. The timing rule that catches people out
This is the single most important technical point, and the one most likely to trip a busy business up. The 5% rate is decided by when the meal is eaten or the attraction is visited, not when the customer pays.
So:
- A ticket bought in advance, before 25 June, for a visit during the window can qualify, because the visit falls in the period.
- A ticket bought during the window but used on or after 2 September does not qualify. It stays at 20%, even though the customer paid while the lower rate was running.
For prepayments, you may choose to apply the reduced rate to payments taken in the qualifying period under the normal change of rate rules. If you have already charged a customer 20% on something that now qualifies at 5%, and they prepaid, HMRC expects you to refund them the difference rather than keep it.
5. Family tickets and mixed supplies
A genuinely useful rule for attractions: where a family ticket is sold for a single price and includes at least one child admission, the 5% rate can apply to the whole ticket, including the adult portion. That makes the family bundle noticeably cheaper to offer.
Be careful with mixed supplies, though. If you sell a package that bundles a qualifying admission with something that does not qualify, only the qualifying element gets the 5% rate. The rest is taxed according to its normal VAT liability, and you need to be able to show how you split it.
6. What to do before 25 June
A short, practical checklist for the next fortnight:
- Identify your qualifying supplies. List exactly which menu items and which tickets fall in scope, and which do not.
- Update your till and accounting system. Add the 5% rate now and test it, so it is ready to go live on 25 June and easy to switch off on 2 September.
- Decide your pricing approach. Will you pass the saving to customers as a lower price, or keep the price and improve your margin? Both are allowed.
- Handle prepayments already taken. Check any bookings for visits in the window where you charged 20%, and plan any refunds.
- Brief your staff. Front of house need to know what is at 5%, what is not, and how the till handles it.
- Diarise 2 September. Switching the rate back is just as important as switching it on. A supply made on or after that date is back at 20%.
A worked example: a soft play cafe
Bounce Ltd runs a soft play centre with a cafe. During the window it sells a family admission ticket at £30 that includes two adults and two children.
Before the change, that £30 ticket carried £5 of VAT (20% on the net). With the family ticket rule, because it includes child admissions, the whole £30 now falls at 5%. If Bounce keeps the price at £30, its VAT drops to about £1.43, improving the margin by roughly £3.57 per ticket. If it instead cuts the price to pass the saving on, families pay less and footfall may rise.
On the cafe side, a clearly held out children's meal at £6 eaten in moves from 20% to 5% VAT. The grilled chicken adult main next to it stays at 20%, and a takeaway children's lunchbox stays at 20% too, because it is not consumed on the premises.
Things to watch out for
- Eat in versus takeaway matters. The same children's meal can be 5% on the premises and 20% to take away.
- Adult meals never qualify on their own. Only meals genuinely held out as children's meals are in scope.
- Sport is out. A soft play centre qualifies, but activities sold as sport or physical recreation do not.
- The end date is a cliff edge. There is no wind down. Anything supplied from 2 September is back at 20%.
- Keep your workings. If you split a mixed supply, record how, in case HMRC asks.
How Ollen Services Can Help
A short, sharp VAT change like this is easy to get wrong in both directions, charging too much and annoying customers, or charging too little and owing HMRC. We can review your menus and ticket types to confirm exactly what qualifies, set your accounting up for the temporary rate, and make sure the switch back on 2 September is clean.
If you run a hospitality or leisure business and want to make the most of the summer window without the risk, we will handle the VAT side so you can focus on a busy summer.
Call us on 07513 491 259 or email hello@ollenservices.co.uk. With the rate live from 25 June, the time to get your systems ready is now.