When buying tickets on Ticketmaster, you may wonder if you need to provide any tax information during the checkout process. The short answer is no – Ticketmaster does not require buyers to submit tax information when purchasing tickets.
Why doesn’t Ticketmaster collect tax info from buyers?
Ticketmaster does not need to collect tax information from buyers because they are not responsible for collecting or remitting sales tax on ticket purchases. Here’s why:
- Ticketmaster acts as an intermediary between event organizers/venues and ticket buyers. They facilitate ticket sales but do not actually sell the tickets themselves.
- The sellers (event organizers/venues) are responsible for remitting any required sales tax on the ticket transactions, not Ticketmaster.
- As the facilitator, Ticketmaster charges service and processing fees to buyers. But these are not taxable ticket sales.
- So since Ticketmaster does not sell the tickets, they have no obligation to collect or remit sales tax.
The event organizers and venues are the actual ticket sellers in the transaction. As the sellers, they are required to register with tax authorities, collect any required sales tax from buyers, report taxable sales, and remit collected taxes to the proper state and local jurisdictions.
What tax information does Ticketmaster collect?
While Ticketmaster does not need to collect sales tax info from buyers, they do ask for the following tax-related information during checkout:
- Billing address – Needed to determine the buyer’s location for credit card processing.
- Last 4 digits of Social Security number – Some states require this for reporting large transactions.
Providing a billing address helps Ticketmaster validate credit card transactions and avoid fraud. The last 4 digits of a Social Security number may be required on large purchases over a certain dollar amount, as per state tax reporting laws.
But again, Ticketmaster does not use this info to calculate, collect, or remit sales tax. That is the responsibility of the event organizers/venues selling the tickets.
Sales tax collection requirements for event organizers/venues
As the actual sellers of the ticket inventory, event organizers and venues do have sales tax obligations:
- They must register with tax authorities in any states where they have a taxable sales presence.
- At the time of sale, they must calculate applicable state and local sales tax rates based on the buyer’s location.
- They must collect this sales tax from buyers as part of the ticket price.
- They must regularly report and remit the sales tax revenue to the appropriate tax agencies.
The event organizers and venues may work with their own integrated ticketing platforms or third-party ticket providers to handle the tax calculations, collection, reporting, and remittance. But as the ticket seller, the tax compliance responsibility ultimately falls on them.
Sales tax is added at checkout
When you buy tickets on Ticketmaster, any state and local sales tax owed on the ticket purchase will be calculated and added to your total cost at checkout.
For example, if you buy a $100 concert ticket, and the combined state and local sales tax rate is 8% for your location, you will see a $8 tax added to your order for a $108 total cost.
Again, Ticketmaster is not charging or keeping this sales tax. The event organizer is responsible for collecting it and remitting it to tax authorities. Ticketmaster is just facilitating that process as part of the checkout flow.
Avoiding double taxation
One thing to note is that Ticketmaster will not charge sales tax on service fees and processing charges they add to the ticket price. This avoids “double taxation” where buyers would pay tax on tax.
Only the base ticket price is subject to sales tax. The fees Ticketmaster adds on top are not taxable in most jurisdictions.
So if there is a $5 service fee on that $100 ticket, for example, the $8 sales tax will only apply to the $100 base ticket price. The $5 fee will not be subject to tax.
Exceptions for charitable and resale tickets
There are some exceptions where Ticketmaster does become responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax:
- Charitable tickets – If Ticketmaster facilitates the sale of tickets where proceeds go to a charitable organization, they may be required to collect and remit the sales tax as the seller.
- Resale tickets – For resale tickets sold directly through Ticketmaster’s exchange platform, they may be liable for tax collection and remittance as the reseller.
Aside from those exceptions, Ticketmaster generally acts as an intermediary rather than the actual seller. So the event organizers, venues, teams, etc. behind the events are responsible for sales tax compliance.
Conclusion
In summary, Ticketmaster does not require buyers to submit tax identification or exemption information when purchasing event tickets on their platform. As a ticket facilitator, sales tax obligations fall on the event organizers and venues who are actually selling the ticket inventory. Ticketmaster will calculate and collect sales tax at checkout on behalf of those sellers, but the sellers are ultimately responsible for remitting the tax revenue to state and local authorities. The only exceptions are for charitable tickets or resale tickets that Ticketmaster sells directly.