VAT and Gift Cards – Single-Purpose or Multi-Purpose Voucher?

The gift card terms determine its VAT treatment

A gift card may be a single-purpose or a multi-purpose voucher. Its terms at issuance determine the classification, not the name you give it.

For a single-purpose voucher, both the place of the future supply and the VAT amount are known at issuance. Other vouchers are multi-purpose vouchers. The definitions are in Chapter 2, Sections 26–27 of the Swedish VAT Act. Single-purpose vouchers are covered by Chapter 5, Sections 40–42; for multi-purpose vouchers, the actual supply at redemption is taxed under Chapter 5, Section 43. Read the VAT Act at the Swedish Parliament.

How Vendion gift cards work

Vendion's standard gift card flow treats cards as multi-purpose vouchers:

1. At sale, the amount received is recorded as a gift card liability, normally in account 2421.
2. No sales VAT is charged on issuance itself in this flow.
3. When the guest purchases food or drinks, VAT is calculated on the purchase.
4. The gift card is used as payment, reducing the liability by the redeemed amount.

The gift card settings do not offer a customer switch between single-purpose and multi-purpose vouchers. Changing an account number does not convert the flow to another voucher type.

What should you check before selling cards?

An unrestricted value voucher usable for purchases with different VAT amounts may be a multi-purpose voucher. A voucher for a specific service with a known place and VAT amount may be single-purpose. The rule “food without alcohol” is not enough to determine this.

Example: a SEK 500 multi-purpose voucher

Assume a gift card qualifies as a multi-purpose voucher under its terms and is sold for SEK 500, paid by card.

The guest later uses the full value for restaurant food costing SEK 300 with 12% VAT and wine costing SEK 200 with 25% VAT.

VAT totals SEK 72.14 in this example. Sales are recorded for the purchase the gift card pays for. Do not record the original card value as additional food sales.

Where do you check settings and records?

• Admin → Marknadsföring → Presentkort → Inställningar (Gift cards → Settings): review gift card terms and settings.
• Admin → Bokföring → Verifikat & export → Kontoplan (Accounting → Vouchers & export → Chart of accounts): check the gift card liability and payment accounts. The default is 2421.
• Admin → Bokföring → Dagsavslut → X/Z-rapporter: follow issuance and redemption in the daily close.
• Verifikat & export → Verifikat: review the actual accounting entries.

Keep the terms applicable when the cards were sold with your accounting documentation. If you want to offer a specific product or meal, confirm the classification and support for the sales flow before launching it. Do not assume a special single-purpose mode can be activated.