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Thailand · Restaurant bill calculator

Service charge, then VAT. The Thai bill, worked out.

When a Thai restaurant adds a 10% service charge and 7% VAT to the menu prices, the VAT is charged on the service charge too. Type the food total, see what the bill comes to, and split it.

Add up the menu prices, before the service charge and VAT.

Service charge and VAT

This calculator runs on JavaScript, which looks switched off. The sum is short enough to do by hand: add 10% to the food for the service charge, then add 7% of that new total for VAT. In one step: menu price × 1.177. A worked example is below.

In short

On a Thai restaurant bill that adds both, a 10% service charge is added to the food, then 7% VAT on the food plus the service charge. The Revenue Department treats a service charge worked out on the food as part of the food’s price, so it is taxed too: 100 baht on the menu is 117.70 on the bill.

Checked

The formula

Why the VAT is on the service charge too.

In 2017 Thailand’s Revenue Department answered exactly this question for a restaurant: a service charge collected as a percentage of the food is part of the price of the food under section 79 of the Revenue Code, and so it is subject to VAT. That fixes the order: service charge first, VAT on the two together.

What a ++ price comes to (10% service charge, then 7% VAT)
On the menuService charge 10%VAT 7%You pay
120.0012.009.24141.24
350.0035.0026.95411.95
1,000.00100.0077.001,177.00
2,400.00240.00184.802,824.80

So ++ in Thailand adds 17.7%, not 17%. Multiply the menu price by 1.177 and you have the bill.

Each line on the bill

What you’re paying for.

  • Service charge (usually 10%). Added by the restaurant, not by law, and printed on the bill. For VAT it counts as part of the food’s price.
  • VAT (7%). The law sets VAT at 10%, but a royal decree keeps it at 7%. Royal Decree No. 807 extended the 7% rate to 30 September 2027.
  • Net prices. Where the menu price already includes everything, nothing is added: pick Net prices.

Service charge vs tip

A note on tipping.

A service charge and a tip are two different things. The service charge is on the bill, added by the restaurant, with VAT on top. A tip is yours to give or not, it isn’t part of the bill, and no VAT is added to what you hand over yourself.

That’s why the calculator keeps the tip field apart and starts it at zero. If you want to leave something on top of a bill that already has a service charge, add it there and choose whether it is worked out on the food or the whole bill.

By hand

Dinner for two in Bangkok.

The menu prices of everything ordered add up to 1,450 baht, ++.

  1. Service charge10% of 1,450 is 145.00. Running total: 1,595.00.
  2. VAT7% of 1,595.00 is 111.65. The bill: 1,706.65.
  3. Divide1,706.65 ÷ 2 = 853.33 each, rounded up to the satang. Round up to a whole baht and the few satang over can stay with the staff.

After the bill

Split it here. Remember it in PlateDiary.

Straight answer first: the PlateDiary app doesn’t split bills. It’s a food memory app for eating out. One photo of the table turns every dish into a save, kept under the place and the people you ate with, and the bill can go with it.

  • The bill, kept. Add an optional price to any dish and a “What was the bill?” total to the night.
  • Receipt scan. Point the camera at the receipt and it fills in the prices. It’s read on your phone, and the photo is deleted right after.
  • Prices as you paid them. Baht stay baht, with no conversion, so a trip reads the way it happened.

Back home, the whole trip is there: every dish, every place on a map, who you were with, and what each dinner came to. Entering prices and scanning receipts is free.

Get PlateDiary How the bill and receipt scan work

Sources

Where the rules come from

  1. Ruling กค 0702/4116 (26 June 2017): a restaurant’s service charge is part of the food’s price under section 79 and subject to VAT — The Revenue Department, Thailand
  2. Thailand maintains 7% VAT rate for another year (Royal Decree No. 807, to 30 September 2027) — Forvis Mazars Thailand

Questions

Questions people ask.

How are service charge and VAT calculated in Thailand?

The 10% service charge goes on the food first, then 7% VAT on the food plus the service charge. A bill of 100 baht in food comes to 117.70.

Is VAT charged on the service charge in Thailand?

Yes. The Revenue Department ruled in 2017 that a service charge worked out as a percentage of the food is part of the food’s price, so VAT applies to it too.

Is VAT in Thailand 7% or 10%?

7%. The law sets 10%, but a royal decree keeps the reduced 7% rate in place, and the latest extension runs to 30 September 2027.

Service charge vs tip: do I still tip in Thailand?

A service charge is added by the restaurant and printed on the bill; a tip is your own choice on top. If the bill already has a service charge, nothing more is required.