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Eventin has a built-in native tax engine that adds tax to your ticket prices at checkout — no WooCommerce or third-party plugin required. You set up one or more tax rates once, targeted by country, state, postcode or city, and choose whether tax sits on top of the price or is already baked into it. Eventin then calculates the tax live as the buyer types their address, and re-checks it on the server when the order is placed, so the customer is always charged the correct amount.
Prerequisites #
- Eventin — installed and active.
- A native payment gateway enabled in Eventin — Stripe, PayPal, or Offline (Local) payment. Free tickets are covered too.
- At least one event with a paid ticket to sell.
Where native tax applies #
Native tax works only with Eventin’s own gateways — Stripe, PayPal, Offline (Local) payment, and Free tickets. If you sell through WooCommerce, SureCart, or FluentCart, those platforms run their own tax systems and Eventin never adds native tax to their orders — set up tax in that platform’s settings instead. When one of them is your active gateway, the Tax Settings panel is shown but disabled, and no tax line appears on the Eventin checkout.
Step 1 — Turn on tax and add your rates #
Go to Eventin → Settings → Payments → Tax Settings. This is the single place where you switch native tax on and define every rate.
- Turn on “Enable Tax?”. Until this is on, no tax is calculated anywhere.
- Pick a Tax Type — Exclusive (tax added on top of the ticket price) or Inclusive (tax already included in the price). This applies to every rate.
- Click “Add Rate” and fill a row: Country, State, Postcode / ZIP and City scope where the rate applies (leave any as * for “all”); Rate Type is Percentage (%) or Fixed; Rate is the number; and Tax Name is the label buyers see (for example VAT). Add as many rows as you need.
- Click “Save Changes”.
Step 2 — Check the event’s Tax Status #
Tax can be switched off for individual events, so different events can be taxable or exempt. Open the event in Eventin → Events, go to the Advanced tab, and find the Tax Status toggle in the sidebar.
- On (the default for new events) — this event’s tickets are taxed using your global rates.
- Off — this event is exempt; no tax is applied to its tickets at checkout, even while global tax is enabled.
Click Update (or Publish) to save the event after changing it.
Exclusive vs Inclusive — which to choose #
Exclusive keeps your ticket price as the pre-tax amount and adds the tax as a separate line — a $100 ticket at 10% shows a $10 tax line and a $110 total. Inclusive treats your ticket price as already tax-included and simply shows how much of it is tax — a $100 ticket at 10% stays $100, noted as containing $9.09 tax. Pick the one that matches how you advertise your prices.
On the checkout page — tax is calculated live #
When a buyer selects a ticket and clicks Get Tickets, the booking page shows a Tax Information block (Country, State, City, Postcode / ZIP). Eventin matches that address to your rates and updates the Booking Summary in real time.
- Exclusive tax appears as its own line — labelled with your rate’s Tax Name — and is added to the Total.
- Inclusive tax is shown in brackets on the Total line instead of as a separate charge.
- Tax is charged on the ticket subtotal plus any Optiontics add-ons, so the previewed amount matches what the server charges.
How rates are matched #
For each order, Eventin checks the buyer’s address against every rate. A rate matches when each of its Country / State / Postcode / City fields is either * or equal to the buyer’s value. When several rates match, the most specific one wins (the one with the fewest wildcards); if two are equally specific, the first one in the table is used. If nothing matches, no tax is charged.
FAQs #
Q: I enabled tax but no tax shows at checkout. Why? #
A: Check four things: (1) the event’s Tax Status is on (Advanced tab); (2) your active gateway is Stripe, PayPal or Offline — native tax never shows for WooCommerce/SureCart/FluentCart; (3) at least one rate matches the buyer’s address (a rate with every field set to * matches everyone); and (4) you clicked Save Changes after editing the rates.
Q: What’s the difference between Exclusive and Inclusive tax? #
A: Exclusive adds tax on top of the ticket price as a separate line. Inclusive treats the ticket price as already tax-included and just shows the tax portion. The setting applies to all of your rates.
Q: Can I exempt a single event from tax? #
A: Yes. Turn that event’s Tax Status off on the Advanced tab and save. Its tickets are then sold tax-free even while global tax stays on for every other event.
Q: Can I charge different rates in different regions? #
A: Yes. Add one row per region and scope it by Country, State, Postcode / ZIP or City. Leave a field as * to mean “all”. When a buyer’s address matches more than one row, the most specific row is applied.
Q: Does tax apply to Optiontics add-ons? #
A: Yes. Tax is calculated on the ticket price plus any Optiontics add-on charges, so the tax on the booking summary matches the amount the server charges.
Q: Could a buyer tamper with the tax amount in the browser? #
A: No. The checkout figure is a live preview only. When the order is created, Eventin re-reads your rates and the event’s Tax Status on the server and recomputes the total, so the customer is always charged the authoritative amount.
Conclusion #
Set your rates once under Settings → Payments → Tax Settings, decide whether they are exclusive or inclusive, and make sure each event’s Tax Status is on. From there Eventin does the rest — matching each buyer’s address to the right rate, previewing the tax live on the booking page, and re-pricing the order on the server so you always collect exactly the right amount. It’s a self-contained way to charge tax on ticket sales without depending on WooCommerce or any external checkout.
