> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bellabooking.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Taxes (GST / VAT / Sales Tax)

> Register your business for tax, capture GST, VAT or sales tax on every sale, issue tax invoices, and report tax collected for your BAS, VAT return or sales-tax return.

## What Bella's tax handling does

If your business is registered for tax, Bella can capture the tax component on every sale, show it on the client's receipt as a proper **tax invoice**, and total it up for you in a **Tax Collected** report — so filing your BAS, VAT return or sales-tax return is a matter of reading the figures off one screen rather than reconciling by hand.

It works in **any country**. You set a single business-wide **rate** and a **tax label** (GST, VAT, Sales Tax, or just Tax) — and Bella suggests sensible defaults for both based on the country your location is in, so most businesses only confirm what's already filled in. Prices are **tax-inclusive** in this release (tax-on-top pricing is coming soon — see below).

<Note>
  Tax is off until you switch it on. While your business isn't registered for tax, nothing changes anywhere — no tax lines, no tax invoice heading, no tax report. This is the safe default, so turning tax on is a deliberate step you take when you're ready.
</Note>

Tax settings live on each **location**, so a business running an Australian GST site and a UK VAT site from one account gets the right label, rate and pricing basis on each — they don't have to match.

***

## Registering your business for tax

1. Go to **Settings → Tax**
2. Switch on **My business is registered for tax**
3. Confirm or adjust the **tax label** and **rate** (see below — pricing stays tax-inclusive, see "Tax-inclusive pricing" below)
4. Review the change summary, then click **Apply**

Because Bella reads your location's country, the tax label and rate arrive pre-filled — for example an Australian location suggests **GST** at **10%**; a UK location suggests **VAT** at **20%**. Every suggestion is editable — they're a starting point, never a rule. Pricing is tax-inclusive in every country for now (see below).

### Tax label

The label is what your clients see on their receipt and what the report is headed with — **GST**, **VAT**, **Sales Tax**, or **Tax**. Pick the term used in your market.

### Rate

A single business-wide percentage — for example `10` for 10% GST or `20` for 20% VAT. A rate of 0% is allowed for zero-rated regimes. You can't register with a blank or negative rate.

### Tax-inclusive pricing

Bella uses **tax-inclusive** pricing (the norm in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the EU) — the tax is already *within* the prices you've set. A $110 service at 10% GST contains $10 of GST; the client still pays \$110. Bella works out the tax component and shows it on the receipt without changing what the client pays.

<Note>
  **Tax-exclusive (tax-on-top) pricing is coming soon.** If your market adds tax *on top* of the ticket price at checkout (common in the US and Canada), that mode isn't available yet — there's no exclusive-pricing control in Bella today. For now you can still use tax in Bella by setting your displayed prices to already include tax (tax-inclusive), and Bella will report the tax within them. Tax-on-top charging is the next step we're building.
</Note>

### Adding your registration number to receipts

Add your **ABN**, **VAT number**, **GST number** or local business/tax number in the **registration number** field on the same tax settings screen. Every tax invoice from then on shows it in the header, labelled for your country — an Australian business's prints as **ABN 12 345 678 901**, a UK business's as **VAT Reg No. GB123456789**. The number is frozen onto each sale at checkout, so historic receipts keep the number that was current when they were issued.

***

## Marking a service or product as exempt

When your business is registered, every service and product is **taxable by default**. To mark one exempt:

1. Open the **service** or **product** and find the **Taxable** toggle (it only appears once your business is registered)
2. Switch it **off** to make that item tax-free

From then on that item's line carries no tax on any future sale, and it's counted as an **exempt sale** in the report. Everything else stays taxable unless you say otherwise.

***

## What the receipt and tax invoice show

Once your business is registered, the client's receipt becomes a **tax invoice**. See [Receipts & invoices](/settings/receipts) for the full picture of how receipts are sent, printed and saved — with tax switched on, the same receipt also shows:

* A **"Tax Invoice"** heading, with your registration number beneath it
* A **tax line** showing the exact tax amount within the total — for example *"Includes GST — $16.36"* in the totals block (the emailed receipt words it as *"Total price includes GST $16.36"*; both carry the amount)
* On a **mixed** sale only, an asterisk (`*`) beside each **taxable line** (with an *"\* includes GST"* footnote) so tax-free items are easy to tell apart — following the convention tax authorities expect when an invoice combines taxable and tax-free items. A fully-taxable invoice needs no per-line marks: the tax line covers it
* The **client's name and billing address** (when they have an address on file), plus each line's **team member** and any **add-ons**, itemised

The tax figures are **captured on the sale at checkout** — so a receipt always reflects the rate and label that were in place when the sale happened. Changing your rate later only affects new sales; receipts already issued are never rewritten.

***

## The Tax Collected report

**Insights → Reports → Tax Collected** gives you, for any period you choose, everything you need to file:

* **Taxable sales** — the total sales that carried tax
* **Exempt sales** — sales of tax-free items
* **Tax collected** — the tax component of your taxable sales
* **Tax refunded** — tax reversed on refunds in the period
* **Net tax** — tax collected less tax refunded, i.e. the amount to remit

Use it to complete your **BAS** (Australia), your **VAT return** (UK / EU), or your **sales-tax return** (US) — the figures line up with the boxes those returns ask for. Refunds are netted automatically, so the report always reflects what you actually owe. See [Reports](/insights/reports) for how date ranges, totals and CSV export work across every report.

<Note>
  Only sales made while your business was registered carry tax, so older sales from before you switched tax on simply don't appear in the report. The report requires the **Reports → View all** permission.
</Note>

***

## How tax is treated across Bella

Bella follows the correct tax treatment for each kind of transaction, so you don't have to think about the edge cases:

* **Tips are never taxed.** A tip is a voluntary gratuity, not part of the supply, so it's kept out of the taxable total and never appears on the tax line — the correct treatment worldwide.
* **Gift cards are taxed at redemption, not at sale.** Selling a gift card takes no tax (it's a dollar instrument of unknown tax character); the tax lands when the card is redeemed against a taxable service or product. That means a gift card is never double-taxed.
* **Packages are taxed at the point of sale.** When a client later redeems a package session, it covers the service line in full, so no further tax is charged — the tax was already accounted for when the package was bought.
* **Deposits are taxed once, at final checkout.** A deposit is just a payment towards the final bill, so the whole sale's tax is worked out when the appointment is checked out — never twice.
* **Membership fees are taxed and included in the report**, so recurring plan revenue is accounted for alongside your other taxable sales.
* **A card processing surcharge follows the supply.** When a sale carries taxable lines, the surcharge is taxed too and appears in the report; on a fully exempt sale it isn't taxed.
* **Discounts reduce the taxable amount.** Tax is worked out on the discounted price, and a discount that applies across the whole sale is shared fairly between the taxable and exempt parts.

***

## Good to know

* **Nothing is applied until you register.** An unregistered business behaves exactly as before — no tax anywhere.
* **Everything is captured per sale.** Rate, label, pricing basis and the tax amount are frozen onto each sale at checkout, so changing a setting never rewrites past sales or past receipts.
* **Tax is always in your location's currency** and shown with your currency's formatting — never a hardcoded symbol.
* **It's available on every plan** — tax handling is compliance groundwork, not a paid add-on.

***

## FAQs

**Q: Do I have to turn tax on?**
A: No. If your business isn't registered for tax, leave it off and nothing changes. Switch it on only when you're registered and ready to capture tax.

**Q: Can each of my locations have a different tax setup?**
A: Yes. Tax settings live on each location, so an Australian GST location and a UK VAT location in the same account each use their own label, rate and pricing basis independently.

**Q: Can I change my rate later?**
A: Yes. A new rate applies to sales made from that point on. Receipts and the Tax Collected report for earlier sales keep the rate that was in place when they happened.

**Q: Is a tip taxed?**
A: No. Tips are voluntary and are always kept out of the taxable total and off the tax line.

**Q: When is a gift card taxed?**
A: At redemption, not at sale — so it's never taxed twice.

**Q: Why don't older sales show in the Tax Collected report?**
A: Only sales made while your business was registered carry tax, so sales from before you switched tax on aren't included.

***

## Permissions

Editing tax settings requires the **Manage settings** permission. Viewing the Tax Collected report requires the **Reports → View all** permission. Team members without these won't see the Tax section or the report.