Selling tickets online with TicketSignup simplifies sales tax management for timed entry events. With over 9,000 US tax jurisdictions, calculating, collecting, filing, and remitting sales tax can be complex and time consuming—especially for events drawing attendees from or taking place across multiple counties or states. TicketSignup eliminates this burden by automatically collecting and paying sales tax for all marketplace states, ensuring compliance and saving events time and effort.
This blog covers some of the most frequently asked questions about sales tax for timed entry events.
- Why does TicketSignup take responsibility for collecting and remitting sales tax for timed entry events?
- For what states and jurisdictions does TicketSignup collect and remit taxes?
- How does TicketSignup calculate sales tax?
- What happens if I get audited?
- What’s the difference between sales tax and amusement/admissions tax?
- How do I collect and remit amusement or admissions tax?
- Do I need to pay sales and/or amusement tax for my timed entry events?
Why does TicketSignup take responsibility for collecting and remitting sales tax for timed entry events?
States began to pass marketplace facilitator laws in 2019 and as of January 1, 2023, every state with a general sales tax also has a marketplace facilitator law. These laws shift the obligation to collect and remit sales tax from the individual seller (your events) to the platform facilitating the sale (TicketSignup).
Unlike other ticket platforms like Fare Harbor, TicketSpice, and TicketLeap, which place the tax burden on events, TicketSignup fully complies with marketplace facilitator laws. We handle the filing and remitting of sales tax, removing this responsibility from event organizers.
For what states and jurisdictions does TicketSignup collect and remit taxes?
TicketSignup maintains a public taxability matrix that shows a high level view of potentially applicable sales tax rules by state.
The U.S. has over 9,000 sales tax jurisdictions, making tax calculations complex. In the example below, TicketSignup collects and remits sales tax to both North Carolina and Franklin County for the ticket. The store item also has state and county taxes. Since the buyer is from a state where processing fees aren’t taxable, no sales tax is charged on the fees.
Complex sales tax jurisdictions and rules make extra fees insufficient for sales tax compliance. In addition, TicketSignup saves events all of the hassle of filing and remitting sales tax for local and state jurisdictions.
How does TicketSignup calculate sales tax?
We partnered with Avalara as our Sales Tax provider. They have an API that we call to get rates that we can apply to tickets and items that your timed entry event sells. We also record those sales tax payments and for marketplace states, we rely on them to do the filing.
We break a transaction into individual line items and determine the taxability and what the tax should be. There are a number of elements to this:
- Item definition – is it a ticket purchase, a shirt, a pre-purchased food item, etc.
- Item location taxability – for example a ticket purchase is the location of the event. If a shirt is shipped to someone, then the shipping address is used for tax calculation. For a virtual event taxability is the billing address of the participant.
- General taxability of the item in that jurisdiction, as well as rates.
- General exemptions for localities that are exceptions to the generally accepted rule. For example, if an event provides legal documentation of an applicable sales tax exemption for a specific event type, we can update our taxability matrix.
- Customer Exemption. There are typically exemptions for nonprofits in certain states, accompanied by documentation or proof of exempt status. Non-profit exemptions for purchasing items don’t count when you are the seller of tickets or merchandise for your event. Many states also exempt non-profit sellers, but not all. We keep track of all that with our sales tax system and make it easy for nonprofits to claim any available exemptions.
Since this list gets multiplied by the nuances of 9,000+ jurisdictions, and the unique set of offerings from the more than 28,000 customers who rely on us, we had to develop a flexible, scalable and reliable sales tax system.
What happens if I get audited?
If your business gets audited, you will be able to easily export summary and line item reports from your TicketSignup Dashboard to show the sales tax collected and remitted on behalf of your event(s). Navigate to Financial >> Sales Tax >> Sales Tax Reports.
The Summary Report shows a summary by state and jurisdiction of the total sales tax amounts collected and remitted. In addition to the sales tax collected and remitted in NJ in the example below, more than 250 jurisdictions had sales tax calculated (although many with exempt status, so fewer jurisdictions with sales tax collected and remitted). Use the search filters to narrow in on a specific time period if some transactions are outside of the periods being audited. There is an easy export option to make it simple to share the summary report with auditors. State auditors should be familiar with marketplace rules and you can let them know that we filed and paid for the sales tax on your behalf.
The Transactions Report shows a breakdown by transaction, with details on each line item available. Like the summary report, you can search on dates and export the report.
What’s the difference between sales tax and amusement/admissions tax?
Sales tax and amusement taxes are different taxes that states may impose on events. Sales tax on tickets, merchandise, and fees are covered by marketplace facilitator laws as detailed here.
Some states and jurisdictions may charge an amusement or amusement tax on events in lieu of or in addition to sales tax. Marketplace facilitator laws do not cover amusement and admissionstax. Therefore, Avalara does not have rules that we can call to automatically calculate and collect sales tax and TicketSignup has no obligation to remit on behalf of events.
Note that there are some exceptions. Chicago and Cook County, IL passed marketplace facilitator laws to include amusement tax. This means that TicketSignup automatically calculates, collects, and remits amusement tax for these jurisdictions because they were added to Avalara.
How do I collect and remit amusement or admission tax?
TicketSignup’s purpose-built Admission and Amusement Tax solution makes it easy to collect and remit amusement or admissions tax. Navigate to Financial >> Sales Tax >> Amusement or Admission Tax. Click Add an Amusement or Admission Tax to get started. There are several fields to complete:
- Apply to Specific Tickets: If you only need to charge admissions or amusement tax on certain ticket types, select which tickets will get taxed.
- Tax Description: This shows as a line item on the purchasers’ checkout carts.
- Amount: Enter the % of the admissions or amusement tax.
- Extended Description: This is an optional field that displays when a purchaser hovers over the admission or amusement tax line item in their checkout cart.
- Applies To: Apply the tax per ticket or per transaction. Note that since it’s just a percentage, it will be the same either way (per transaction excludes additional items like store, donations, and extra fees).
TicketSignup makes it easy to view and pull reports on your event’s collected admissions or amusement taxes. Navigate to Financial >> Sales Tax >> Amusement or Admission Tax Reports. There are summary and line item reports. If you use TicketSignup’s Point of Sale integration with Square, you can also view Amusement or Admission PoS Tax Reports.
Do I need to collect sales and/or amusement tax for my timed entry events?
You’re ultimately responsible for assessing your tax obligations in areas where you’re hosting an event. We encourage you to consult a tax professional if you’re not sure what your tax obligations are. TicketSignup can’t give you tax advice.