VAT & tourist tax
Updated on 2026-10-22
Settings → Taxes
You set up the VAT on your accommodation and your municipality's tourist tax with a tax set. That set applies to your property: your website, your bookings, your quotes and your invoices all calculate with it, so the guest sees the same amount everywhere.
The quickest way: the Belgian default set
- Go to Settings → Taxes (page title Tax sets).
- Click Create Belgian default set and confirm.
BedFlow then creates the Standard BE set as your property's default set, with two rules:
| Rule | Kind | Calculation | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT 12% (accommodation) | VAT | % | 12 |
| Tourist tax (per person/night) | Tourist tax | € per person per night | 2.00 |
If the tourist tax amount isn't right for your municipality, open the set and change the Rate. If you already have a default set, nothing happens.
If you have several properties, first choose the right property at the top of the sidebar.
Creating or changing a set yourself
Click New set, or click an existing set in the list.
Set
- Choose the property, give the set a name (e.g. "Standard BE") and choose the currency.
- Switch on Default set for new rate plans. That makes this the set your property calculates with. Tick this box for one set per property.
Taxes in this set: click + Add tax for each rule.
| Field | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Name | As it appears on the invoice, e.g. "Tourist tax" |
| Kind | VAT, Tourist tax or Fee |
| Calculation | %, € per person per night, € per person (one-off), € per night, € per room per night, € per room (one-off) or € per booking |
| Rate | 12 for 12%, or 2 for €2 |
| Incl. in room price? | See below |
| Order | Leave it at 0. Only needed if one tax has to be calculated on top of another |
Click Create or Save changes.
If your property is connected to the channel manager, BedFlow automatically passes the set on to your channels whenever it changes.
How does BedFlow calculate the tourist tax?
- The tourist tax comes from a single source: your property's default set. Website, booking, quote and invoice calculate the same amount.
- BedFlow uses the first rule in that set with a calculation in euros. So keep only one such rule in your default set.
- It's charged per adult. Children don't count.
- If there's no tourist tax in your default set, BedFlow doesn't charge any (€0).
- A discount code never reduces the tourist tax.
- Does your municipality have a maximum number of taxed nights (e.g. 5 nights) or a number of free nights? Support will set that up for you.
On the invoice, the tourist tax appears as a separate line at 0% VAT: a city tax isn't accommodation.
Is the tourist tax already included in your price?
If you publish a price on all your channels and your own website that already includes the tourist tax, switch on Incl. in room price? for that rule.
- The tax then does not come on top of your price. The guest pays exactly the price they saw, and has nothing more to settle on site. The booking widget shows "Tourist tax (included)".
- On the invoice, the tourist tax is still shown separately, at 0% VAT, and that same amount is deducted from the accommodation lines. The total stays the same; only the split across the VAT rates is now correct.
If the switch is off (the default), the tax comes on top of the price.
The VAT on your accommodation
Your room prices are always prices including VAT. BedFlow extracts the VAT using the percentage of the VAT rule in your default set (e.g. 12%). You set the VAT rate of a product (breakfast, wellness, drinks) on the product itself under Management → Products.
Italy: imposta di soggiorno and ricevuta
If your property's country is IT, you get a few extra settings. A property in another country does not see them.
Age limit and maximum number of nights. On the line of the type Tourist tax in your default set, two fields appear:
- Exempt under the age of: guests who are younger on arrival do not pay (e.g. 12 or 14, according to your municipality's regulation). Empty = no age limit.
- Maximum taxed nights per stay: many municipalities tax at most 5 to 10 consecutive nights. An 8-night stay with a maximum of 5 is taxed over 5 nights.
Ages and exemptions from the guest registration. At booking, adults pay and children do not. As soon as the guest registration is filled in, BedFlow uses the dates of birth and adjusts the proforma. What the guest has already paid stays; the difference becomes the balance due. BedFlow never changes a final invoice: you get a notification instead.
If a guest is exempt for another reason (resident of the municipality, coach driver or tour leader, companion of a patient, person with a disability, police or fire service on duty, student, or another reason from your regulation), choose it per guest under Fill in registration on the booking, in the field Tourist tax exemption (imposta di soggiorno). The guest does not see this field and cannot fill it in.
Channels that collect the tax themselves. In some municipalities Airbnb (or another channel) collects the imposta di soggiorno itself and pays it over. Open the channel on Integrations and turn on This channel collects the tourist tax (imposta di soggiorno) itself. BedFlow then leaves the tax off the invoice for those bookings, but still counts the nights in the report.
The report for the municipality and the Agenzia delle Entrate. On Statistics, click Imposta di soggiorno, choose month, quarter or year and Excel or CSV. You get, per stay, the overnight stays, the taxed and exempt nights by reason, the amount due and collected, and what a channel collected itself. The annual overview contains the figures per month for the annual return (before 30 June). A stay counts in the period of its departure date.
Private individual without partita IVA: a ricevuta. If you rent out as a private individual (locazione breve) without a partita IVA, choose the Tax regime (Italy) "Private individual without partita IVA" on your property under Location & contact. The final invoice then becomes a ricevuta: without VAT, with the statement that the rental is outside the scope of VAT, and above €77.47 with the €2 marca da bollo (revenue stamp). Stick the stamp on the original. The imposta di soggiorno does not count towards that threshold. Enter your codice fiscale where you would otherwise enter your VAT number, and do not add a VAT line to your tax set.
Support can set all of this up for you in one go (10% IVA and the imposta di soggiorno with your municipality's rate, age limit and maximum).
Frequently asked questions
Can I choose a different set per room type or per booking? No. The default set applies to the whole property.
Children don't pay tourist tax with us. Do I need to set anything up? No, BedFlow only counts adults.
How does this end up in my accounting? The VAT is shown per rate on the invoice (e.g. 12% accommodation, 21% drinks). The tourist tax is shown separately at 0%: for you it's an amount passed on to the municipality. Your accounting integration takes this over as it is. See Invoicing.