Guides › Taxes
The tax rate follows the tour, not just the country
Most booking software has one tax field per business, which works until the day it does not. In several European countries the rate depends on what kind of activity you sold, and an operator running two kinds owes two rates.
Spain is the clearest example. A guided tour is taxed at the reduced rate of 10 %. Renting a kayak to someone who paddles off alone is a rental, taxed at the standard 21 %. Same operator, same day, same marina.
The distinction is not arbitrary: a guided service is a service, a rental is a rental. But it means “what is the VAT rate in Spain” is not a question with one answer for an operator.
Three states, not two
A tax field needs to distinguish three things, and most only manage two:
- Not set — use whatever the business rate is.
- Explicitly zero — this activity is exempt or zero-rated, and that is a decision, not a blank.
- A specific rate — this one is different from the rest.
If empty and zero are the same value, an exempt tour is indistinguishable from one nobody configured, and the day the business rate changes, the exempt one changes with it.
Inside the price or added at the end
This is a market question, not a preference. In the EU, the price shown to a consumer must include tax; the guest sees $110 and the tax is inside it. In the US, sales tax is customarily added at checkout; the guest sees $100 and pays $107.
The same number produces two different totals depending on which convention applies, so it has to be a setting rather than a habit. Software written for one market and sold into the other gets this quietly wrong — the arithmetic works, the total is off.
What the guest should see
Tax as its own line before payment, whichever convention you are under. It is what people expect from any checkout, and it is what makes a card dispute short: an itemised total is evidence of what was agreed.
What this means for your website
The rate is set once for the business and can be overridden per tour, with empty meaning "inherit" and zero meaning "exempt" — two different values, deliberately. Whether tax is inside the displayed price or added at checkout is a setting that follows your market, and it applies to every price on the site and to the Stripe line items alike.
Not tax advice. Rates, categories and registration thresholds differ by country and state and change often; confirm yours with your accountant or the tax authority before you rely on any of it.