Platform tax

The tax you charge restaurants on what you sell them — and why it is not the same tax as the one on a customer's meal.

Admin → Settings → Tax

Two taxes, and they are unrelated

This is the distinction the whole page rests on. Confusing the two is how a platform ends up charging tax twice or not at all.

Platform tax (this screen)Restaurant tax
Charged onSubscription plans and sponsored placements.The customer's meal.
Charged byYou, to the restaurant.The restaurant, to its customer.
Set whereHere.Each restaurant's own settings — see Restaurant profile.
Appears onPlatform invoices.Order receipts.

Nothing on this screen touches what a diner pays.

Set it up

  1. Add tax on top of the price — prices are stated before tax; it is added at checkout.
  2. Prices already include tax — the invoice shows the tax contained in the price. Pick one of the two.
  3. Tax name — VAT, GST, sales tax. Printed as you write it.
  4. Tax rate — the percentage.
  5. Your tax registration number — printed on every invoice.
  6. Press Save tax settings.
The Tax tab with each field numbered 1 to 6
The Tax tab. Click to enlarge.
On-top or included changes what restaurants pay. A plan priced at 50 with 20% on top is billed at 60; the same plan with tax included is billed at 50 and the invoice states that 8.33 of it was tax. Decide before you publish prices — changing it later moves everybody's bill, and they will notice.

What it applies to

Everything the platform sells a restaurant: subscription plans and sponsored placements. One rate covers both.

Existing agreements at the gateway keep charging the amount they were created with. A rate change applies to new sales and republished plans — see Plans.

Set this before you sell anything

An invoice without a tax number, or with the wrong treatment, is a document a restaurant's accountant will send back. It costs ten minutes now and a round of corrections later.

If you are unsure whether you must charge tax at all, that is a question for an accountant in your jurisdiction rather than for a default setting.

When it doesn't work

Invoices show no tax

The rate is zero, or the tax name is blank. Both are legitimate if you are not registered — but check it is deliberate.

A restaurant says it was charged more than the advertised price

Add tax on top is set. The advertised price is before tax; the invoice explains the difference.

Existing subscribers are still paying the old amount

Their agreement at the gateway was created with the old figure. It changes at their next new sale, not retroactively.

The tax number is missing from invoices

It has not been entered here. It is printed on every invoice the platform issues, and only from this field.

Related Plans · Sponsored placement · Platform earnings · Restaurant profile