Booking.com and VAT in Argentina: what the property pays

Commission is also charged on VAT

According to Booking's partner help, in most countries commission is calculated on the price including VAT. It isn't charged on local taxes such as city tax, but it is on VAT, depending on each country's law. What applies to your property is in your general terms with Booking.

In practice, if you load your rates with the 21% inside, you pay Booking commission on a tax you then have to pay to ARCA, Argentina's tax agency.

The invoice comes from abroad

Commission is invoiced by Booking.com B.V., a company in Amsterdam. Booking says that, depending on local law, it may add VAT to the invoice or not, and that if it doesn't, you may have to calculate and report it yourself.

In Argentina that has a name: import of services. If you're VAT-registered (responsable inscripto), you pay 21% on the invoice within 10 working days of paying it, and claim it as input VAT in the following period. If you're on the simplified regime (monotributo), there's no input VAT to claim: any VAT paid on the commission is a cost. The table below shows how much it weighs.

If you pay the invoice by card

Argentine cards can add their own charges to payments abroad: VAT on digital services, shown as “IVA RG 4240”, and withholdings on foreign-currency spending. Check the statement for the month you pay the commission and take it to your accountant, so the same VAT isn't paid twice.

Foreign tourists don't pay VAT on accommodation

VAT-registered properties can refund foreign tourists the VAT on accommodation: the guest proves they live abroad with their passport, pays with a card issued abroad or a transfer from a foreign bank, and you issue a class “T” invoice. The operations are reported to ARCA monthly.

That's why it's worth knowing how you built your rates on Booking: if a price designed with VAT is paid by someone who doesn't pay VAT, the maths changes, and the commission was already calculated on the total.

What to ask your accountant

We're not accountants, and this doesn't replace one. It's for bringing the right questions: whether Booking's invoices include VAT or not, who's paying it and how, whether your card adds charges to that payment, and how your rates are loaded for Argentine and foreign guests.

And the other sum: every booking that comes direct through your website has no commission, no VAT on commission and no invoice from abroad. You can run it with your numbers in our Booking commission calculator.