Sales tax

If you charge sales tax, VAT, GST or anything like it, Maelo can add it to the money you take on the day. Set your rate once and it is applied for you from then on.

Tax is charged on the final payment, never on the deposit. A deposit is a prepayment holding a date rather than a completed sale, so the tax lands when the balance is settled and it is worked out on the full price of the work, not just the remainder. That means the flat amount your client sees on the booking page to secure their date never has tax added to it.

If your rate is set to zero, which it is until you change it, no tax line appears anywhere and nothing extra is charged.

Go to Settings, Payments, Final Payments and find Tax Settings. There are two ways to enter it.

• •One rate. Type a percentage into Tax rate. Simplest, and right for most people.
• •Named lines. Tap Add Tax Line, give it a name and a percentage, and add as many as you need. Some places want them itemised separately, GST and PST being the usual example.
• •Combined tax rate shows underneath once you have lines, so you can see what your client actually pays.

It saves as you type. Deleting a line drops its percentage out of the combined rate straight away, and deleting your last line takes you back to zero.

A quote never shows a tax rate. With I charge tax on appointments switched on, every quote and Client Hub estimate carries + applicable tax with no number.

That is deliberate. A quote is written before anyone knows which region the work will happen in, and the rate saved in your settings is your home rate. On a guest spot it would be the wrong number on a document your client pays from.

You set the real tax when you take the payment, choosing from your saved taxes or adding a custom one for wherever you are that day. So the number your client is charged is always the right one for the place the work actually happened.

Your saved rate is a starting point, not a rule. Open Collect Payment on a booking and the tax line in the summary is editable: you can rename it, change the percentage, or drop it out entirely for that one appointment.

Nothing you do there touches your default. It is meant for the guest spot in a different region, or the one job where tax genuinely does not apply.

Maelo applies the rate you give it, records what was charged, and shows the tax on your client's receipt. That is the whole job.

It does not work out which taxes you owe, does not look up the correct rate for where you are working, does not register you anywhere, and does not file or remit anything on your behalf. If a number is wrong, it is because a wrong number was typed in.