Sales Tax on Ticket Sales
Add sales tax to your event tickets to comply with state or local regulations. In this article, you will learn how to apply and calculate sales tax on event tickets.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
You can still add Sales Tax even if you have already started selling tickets; however, it will only apply to future ticket sales.
Sales Tax can be added to all or selected ticket types
Sales Tax can be charged to the ticket buyer or absorbed by the organizer
VAT and Sales Tax cannot be applied at the same time
If you want to add VAT instead of Sales Tax, click here for more information.
How to Add Sales Tax
Enable Sales Tax
Go to Settings > Payment Processing
Click the Sales Tax tab
Select "Yes, I need to charge tax for this event"
Fill out the required information
Sales Tax Name
Sales Tax ID
Country
Tax Rate - This is the tax percentage, not the tax amount.
Applies to all tickets - check this if you want to add a tax to all paid tickets.
Absorb tax - check if you want the tax deducted from your ticket revenue. Uncheck if you want the tax to be added on top of your ticket price.
How is Sales Tax Calculated?
The sales tax computation will depend on your setup based on these scenarios:
Scenario 1: Absorb Fees and Pass Sales Tax to the Ticket Buyer
In the Ticket Fee Settings, you can select "Absorb Fees," and in the tax settings, you can choose to pass the tax to the buyer. This means the buyer will pay only for the ticket price + tax. You will shoulder the ticketing and credit card processing fees, which will be deducted from your revenue.
Ticket Price: $100
Sales Tax: 5%
Amount paid: $105
| Formula | Total |
Ticket Price |
| $100 |
Accelevents ticketing fee (for Free and Starter Plan) | $1 + 3% of Ticket Price | $4 |
Credit Card Processing Fee | 2.9% of Ticket Price + 30 cents | $3.20 |
Revenue from Ticket Price | Ticket Price - AE Fee - CCP | $92.80 |
Sales Tax | 5% of the Ticket Price | $5 |
Total Payment | Ticket Price + Sales Tax | $105 |
Scenario 2: Absorb Fees and Sales Tax
This scenario applies when you select "Absorb Fees" in the ticket fee settings, and in your sales tax setup, you also choose to absorb the tax. This means the buyer will pay only for the ticket price. You will shoulder the ticketing fees, credit card processing fees, and sales tax, which will be deducted from your revenue.
Ticket Price: $100
Sales Tax: 5%
Amount paid: $100
| Formula | Total |
Ticket Price |
| $100 |
Accelevents ticketing fee (for Free and Starter Plan) | $1 + 3% of Ticket Price | $4 |
Credit Card Processing Fee | 2.9% of Ticket Price + 30 cents | $3.20 |
Sales Tax | 5% of the Ticket Price (95.2?) | $4.76?? |
Revenue from Ticket Price | Ticket Price - AE Fee - CCP - TAX | $87.80 |
Total Payment |
| $100 |
Computation:
To compute the sales tax, get the 5% of $100
$100 x .05 = $5
The sales tax is $5
Breakdown of the amount paid by the buyer:
Accelevents ticketing fee: $4
Credit card processing fee: $3.20
Remaining revenue (from ticket price): $92.80
$1 + 3% + $3.20 + $92.55 = $100
Scenario 3: Pass Fees and Tax to Ticket Buyer
In the Ticket Fee Settings, you can select "Pass Fees on to Ticket Buyer," and in the tax settings, you can choose to pass the tax to the buyer. This means the buyer will pay for the ticket price, and on top of that, they will also pay for the ticketing fees, credit card processing fees, and Sales Tax.
| Formula | Total |
Ticket Price |
| $100 |
Revenue from Ticket Price | Ticket Price | $100 |
Accelevents ticketing fee (for Free and Starter Plan) | $1 + 3% of Ticket Price | $4 |
Total Amount Without the TAX
We need to compute this to get the base for computing the TAX | (Ticket Price + AE Fee + Stripe $.3) divided by (1 - Stripe 2.9%)
 | $107.41 |
TAX | 5% of the Total Amount Without the TAX | $5.37 |
Total Payment Since TAX will be added on top of the ticket price and AE fees, we need to compute the total amount to be paid, which includes the Stripe % from the TAX. | Ticket Price + AE Fee + TAX + Stripe $.3) divided by (1 - Stripe 2.9%)
| $112.95 |
Credit Card Processing Fee | Total Payment - Ticket Price - AE Fee - TAX | $3.58 |
Scenario 4: Pass Fees to Ticket Buyer and Absorb Sales Tax
Ticket Price: $100
Sales Tax: 5%
Amount Paid: $108.45
Computation:
To compute for the sales tax, get the total amount, then subtract it from (the total amount divided by 1.05 (05 represents 5%)).
$108.45 - ($108.45 / 1.05)
$108.45 - 103.28 = $5.17
The sales tax is $5.17
Breakdown of the amount paid by the buyer:
Accelevents ticketing fee: $5
Credit card processing fee: $3.45
Sales tax: $5.17
Remaining revenue (from ticket price): $94.83
$5 + $3.45 + $5.17 + $94.83 = $108.45
To see the total amount of sales tax collected, go to:
Settings > Payment Processing
Under the Payment Options tab, look for the Sales Tax Amount
Frequently Asked Questions
When an attendee purchases a ticket, will they see a breakdown of the sales tax in the order summary?
No
For fees passed on to the ticket buyer, it will show total fees collected where sales tax is already included, but no breakdown specific to sales tax. | 
|
For fees absorbed by the event organizer, it will only show the ticket price. | 
|
What will attendees see on their confirmation email? Will the sales tax appear there?
No
For fees passed on to the ticket buyer, it will show total fees collected where sales tax is already included, but no breakdown specific to sales tax. |  |
For fees absorbed by the event organizer, it will only show the ticket price. |  |
Can the Sales Tax be found in any report?
As of the moment, this is not found in any report. Total Sales Tax collected can only be found here:
Go to Settings > Payment Processing
Under Payment Options, you should see the Sales Tax Amount
How can I inform attendees that we will be charging Sales Tax before checking out?
You can utilize the disclaimer section by adding information about the Sales Tax charges.
Go to Registration > Order Form
Scroll down below to Checkout Disclaimer
Can sales tax be applicable for tickets already purchased?
No, once an attendee has already purchased a ticket and you had not set up your sales tax to be collected, we can't apply the sales tax anymore to previous tickets. To avoid this, make sure to enable the collection of sales tax before opening ticket registration.