Preparing for Tax Change

If your organization has set the single ticket or season ticket prices as rounded prices (i.e. $15.00 or $15.50, etc) inclusive of the current tax, when the tax rate changes, the final price of the ticket will no longer be rounded (in most cases). To continue with rounded prices after a tax change, additional adjustments will have to be made to the ticket base prices and/or sales promotion calculations.

We advise each site to start planning for any tax changes as soon as they are aware a change will happen. This way, you can determine the effect a change has on the 'end price' shown to the patron and if any other price changes to the base ticket price or sales promotion are required.

For example, if the Exchange Fee (or Order Fee, or Mailing Fee) is currently $2.00 per ticket, inclusive of a 6% tax rate. It is likely the exchange fee in System Tables will need to be set to $1.90.

To maintain a $2.00 exchange fee after a Tax Rate Change Day, you need to change the ticket exchange fee amount from $1.89 to $1.90.

This same example applies if you have any ticket fees setup for your sales promotions. If you have a ticket fee that is setup to become rounded at $1.00 inclusive of the 6% Tax Rate, then in the Sales Promotion, you will need to setup the ticket fee amount from $0.94 to $0.95.

Keep in mind, if a tax rate is being reduced, patrons may expect the ticket prices to drop accordingly. It will be an internal decision within your organization to reset the prices to round to the nearest dollar again, or leave the ticket prices as currently set and have 'non-rounded' ticket values. If your organization chooses to have 'non-rounded' ticket values for the remainder of the current season, then next season, simply go back to having 'rounded' ticket prices again.

You will need to evaluate your patrons' perception, as many patron's expect to see a ticket price drop.