Understanding Taxes and Fees for Event Registration

This article explains how taxes and fees are calculated when someone registers for an event with tax enabled or fees applied to a payment method.

1. Taxes

You can choose to include or exclude tax in your ticket prices. Here's how it works with a 10% tax rate and an adult ticket priced at $110 after tax:

  • Including Tax: Set the ticket price as $110. The system automatically includes the tax in this price. This means the ticket price is $100 + $10 (10% tax) = $110.
  • Excluding Tax: Set the ticket price as $100. The system adds $10 in tax to the total invoice before payment.

2. Payment Method Fees

To cover credit card processing costs, you can add fees to specific payment methods. These can be percentage-based or flat fees.

Here's how to add fees:

  1. Go to Settings > Events.
  2. Select the pencil icon next to the payment method.
  3. Enter the fee percentage and/or fee amount.
  4. Click Save.

Example:

You add a 1.9% + $0.30 fee to your PayPal payment method. When someone pays $100 for a ticket, here's the breakdown:

  • Registrant's total: $102.25 ($100 + $2.25 in fees)
  • PayPal's fee: Approximately $2.25 (This varies based on PayPal's rates)
  • You receive: $100

Important Note: Payment gateways (like PayPal) calculate their fees based on the total transaction amount (including your added fees).

3. Tax on Fees

Taxes may also apply to the fees you add. Here's how it works:

  • Including Tax: The tax is already factored into the fee amount you set. For example, if you set a fee of $2.25 and your tax rate is 10%, the $2.25 already includes the tax.
  • Excluding Tax: Tax is calculated on top of the fee.
    • For example, if the fee is $2.25 and the tax rate is 10%, the total fee with tax would be $2.25 + ($2.25 x 0.10) = $2.47. This means the registrant pays $2.25 for the fee and $0.22 for the tax on the fee.