VAT on tickets and ticketing fees

Two separate VAT questions hide inside every ticket sale: VAT on the ticket itself, and VAT on the platform's fee. Conflating them — or missing that a quoted fee excludes VAT — is one of the commonest budgeting errors in UK events. This is a working guide, not tax advice; confirm your position with an accountant.

VAT on the ticket price

If you're VAT-registered, admission is normally standard-rated at 20% — the VAT comes out of your face value (a £20 ticket contains £3.33 of VAT). If you're under the £90,000 registration threshold, no VAT arises on your tickets at all — a structural advantage small organisers routinely forget they have.

The cultural exemption can zero-rate admission VAT for qualifying bodies — broadly, public bodies and eligible non-profits running theatrical, musical or artistic events. Charities' fundraising events have a separate exemption. Both are conditional and worth professional confirmation before you rely on them.

VAT on platform fees

Platform fees are a service to you and generally carry VAT — the trap is presentation:

If you're VAT-registered you can usually reclaim the VAT on fees as input tax, which softens the difference; if you're not, the '+VAT' rate is simply 20% dearer than advertised.

Fan-side fees and whose supply it is

When a marketplace adds its own fan-side booking fee, that fee is usually the platform's supply to the fan, not yours — it doesn't enter your VAT accounting. When a fee is deducted from your payout, it's a supply to you and does. This distinction decides whose turnover the fee sits in, and matters more the closer you are to the registration threshold.