How Taxes Work in TrailerBase

How taxes work in TrailerBase

TrailerBase applies a single flat tax rate that you configure to the documents you send renters. It is intentionally simple: you set one rate and one label, and TrailerBase does the arithmetic. It does not determine what rate you should charge — that part is up to you.

Where to set it

Open Settings > Invoicing and find the Invoice defaults section. Three fields control tax:

• Default tax rate — a single percentage (for example, 8.25%).
• Tax label — the words shown on the tax line (for example, "Sales Tax" or "GST"). This is exactly what renters — and your own invoice and quote screens — see next to the rate.
• Apply tax by default — when on, the default rate is applied automatically to new documents. When off, documents start untaxed and you add tax manually where you want it.

Where the rate is applied

With Apply tax by default turned on, your default rate now flows into:

• Manual invoices — the rate pre-fills in the create form, so you see it and can change it before creating the invoice.
• Auto-generated rental invoices — the invoice created when a rental is completed picks up your default rate.
• Post-return charge invoices — late fees, tolls, and damage charges billed after a return also pick up your default rate (see the note below).
• Quotes — the rate pre-fills when you build a quote, exactly like manual invoices.

Tax is calculated as a single rate on the after-discount total: discounts are subtracted first, then tax is applied to what remains.

Late fees, tolls, and damage

Whether after-the-fact charges like late fees, tolls, and damage repairs are taxable varies by jurisdiction. TrailerBase applies your Apply tax by default setting to these post-return invoices too, so the call is yours: if those charges are not taxable where you operate, either turn the default off or set those invoices to 0% tax.

What renters see

On the public invoice page, the public quote page, and the invoice you print or download, the tax line reads with your configured label and the rate — for example, "Sales Tax (8.25%)". When a document has no tax, no tax line is shown at all.

Reporting

The Sales Tax report (under Reports) totals the tax collected across your issued invoices for any date range, so you can see what you've charged when it's time to file.

What TrailerBase does not do

TrailerBase applies the rate you configure — nothing more. It does not:

• Look up the correct rate for an address or jurisdiction. There is no geographic tax lookup.
• Support multiple or named rates, per-line tax, or tax-exempt line items. There is one rate per document.
• Update rates automatically when tax laws change. If your rate changes, update it in Settings.
• Act as a marketplace facilitator, or file and remit tax on your behalf.
• Tax online booking checkouts. Bookings taken through the embeddable widget or your published booking site are currently untaxed; send an invoice if you need to collect tax on those.