{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/visitor-levy-scotland-act-2024/section-53",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/visitor-levy-scotland-act-2024/section-53.json",
  "legislation": "asp/2024/8",
  "legislation_title": "Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/visitor-levy-scotland-act-2024",
  "path": "section/53",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "53",
  "heading": "Reasonable excuse for failure to pay levy",
  "text": "(1) If P satisfies the relevant local authority that there is a reasonable excuse for a failure to comply with section 29 or 29A(2), liability to a penalty under section 52 does not arise in relation to that failure.\n(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—\n(a) an insufficiency of funds is not a reasonable excuse unless attributable to events outside P's control,\n(b) where P relies on any other person to do anything, that is not a reasonable excuse unless P took reasonable care to avoid the failure, and\n(c) where P had a reasonable excuse for the failure but the excuse has ceased, P is to be treated as having continued to have the excuse if the failure is remedied without unreasonable delay after the excuse ceased.",
  "extent": "S",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words in s. 53(1) inserted (21.7.2026) by Visitor Levy (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2026 (asp 18), s. 16(2)(h), sch. para. 13"
    },
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "S. 53 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 79(2)"
    },
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I2",
      "text": "S. 53 in force at 20.9.2024 by S.S.I. 2024/231, reg. 2"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2024/8/section/53",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T20:12:08.798767+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}