Community Support Forums

Hi all,

My client will be selling training videos online, using Specific Page access restrictions. Everything's working great, but PayPal is adding sales tax (they also sell the videos in DVD format, so the sales tax is appropriate there).

Is there a way to set the sales tax in the PayPal button? Here's the shortcode (domain changed, obviously):

[s2Member-PayPal-Button ids="472" exp="4380" desc="Video #1: access for 6 months" ps="paypal" cc="USD" ns="1" custom="www.mydomain.com" ra="4.99" sp="1" image="default" output="button" /]

Thanks!

I'm having the same problem! PayPal is charging sales tax where they're not supposed to...

I wasn't sure if this is an issue with PayPal settings, or s2Member. I think it has only happened with Buy Now buttons (as opposed to Subscription buttons)

Thanks for both of your inquiries.

bwold wrote:Hi all,

My client will be selling training videos online, using Specific Page access restrictions. Everything's working great, but PayPal is adding sales tax (they also sell the videos in DVD format, so the sales tax is appropriate there).

Is there a way to set the sales tax in the PayPal button? Here's the shortcode (domain changed, obviously):

[s2Member-PayPal-Button ids="472" exp="4380" desc="Video #1: access for 6 months" ps="paypal" cc="USD" ns="1" custom="www.mydomain.com" ra="4.99" sp="1" image="default" output="button" /]

Thanks!

With s2Member Pro Forms, s2Member Pro allows you to configure taxes inside your WordPress Dashboard for all transaction types. With Standard PayPal "Buy Now" Buttons, taxes need to be configured inside your PayPal account instead. See: http://flyingcart.com/blog/how-do-i-use ... -settings/

Regarding a PayPal Button Shortcode Attribute...
No, there is currently no s2Member Shortcode Attribute for this. I'll see what we can do about this in a future release. However, I would still suggest that you configure tax rates inside your PayPal account when you use Standard Button integration, because checkout occurs at PayPal in that case, and tax rates need to be configured based on the Customer's location, which is something that only PayPal will know. Therefore, configuring tax rates inside your PayPal account will give you the best accounting.

Question: I don't have Pro yet, but am considering buying it. When you say "there is currently no s2Member Shortcode Attribute," does that mean I would have to use the full button html to create my sales page with Pro?

Or does Pro eliminate the need for button code altogether...?

Hope this makes sense... One of the things I really like about s2Member so far is the ability to place shortcodes on the visual editor for a page, rather than having to mess with a zillion-character html string. So if Pro would require me to use the zillion-character html string for every button I'd be less inclined to buy.

(And btw, fyi, sales pages in Premise seem not to like s2Member shortcode -- I could only get buttons to work using the zillion-character html string when making a Premise sales page. I'll post a separate thread about that.)

Melissa

Thanks for the follow-up.

Or does Pro eliminate the need for button code altogether...?

Yes, s2Member Pro integrates with PayPal Pro, which is connected by s2Member Pro Forms. s2Member Pro gives you Shortcodes too, but they produce full registration/payment forms, instead of just Buttons; making it possible for Customers to complete checkout entirely on your site, and eliminating the need to have Customers go through PayPal when they would prefer to use a credit card on your site. Please see this video intro: http://www.s2member.com/video-pro-intro/

Interesting...

divagrrl27 wrote:(And btw, fyi, sales pages in Premise seem not to like s2Member shortcode -- I could only get buttons to work using the zillion-character html string when making a Premise sales page. I'll post a separate thread about that.)

This definitely sounds like a plugin conflict, or a theme conflict. Are any Shortcodes functional? Have you tested this against the default WordPress TwentyEleven theme?

Hi, I have set my taxes in Paypal. I am using s2 and paypal standard. However, the taxes are not being calculated when a customer clicks on an s2 generated button.

Has anyone had success with this?

Thanks for the follow-up.
Is your Button configured as a "Subscription"?
PayPal does not apply your tax calculations to "Subscriptions", so you'll need to make them Buy Now Buttons please.

Hi Jason, I'd like to pick up on this. Background first: I am revisiting s2 as part of an evaluation for a project I'm embarking on (which may be the precursor of several other similar projects). It's targeted at customers in the UK (where I am based) and therefore I am butting my head against the dreaded EU-style sales tax that rejoices in the name of VAT ("Value Added Tax") . Importantly, some of the similar future products may cross international boundaries, so I must be aware that some of these transactions will attract VAT and others won't.

So basically, I have 2 questions ...

1. What the customer sees when checking out.
I have been trying out s2member Basic in the PayPal sandbox for my first (largely UK only) project and it works nicely, picking up my tax settings from PayPal.

But there's one thing I don't like about it: when you first get taken to PayPal, the left-hand side bar just shows you the "net" price i.e. exclusive of VAT. This makes perfect sense because without yet having any info from the purchaser as to their location, PayPal can't decide if tax should be added per my account's tax set up. Once they login or choose a location, it does add the tax if needed. All good.

The convention in the UK is to quote prices that include VAT. So although it does get added in once the purchase really gets in to full swing, I'd really prefer to have it included upfront, so that people are not seeing a price that starts out at £X, seems to drop to £Y, then goes back to £X (!) as they go through the checkout.

I conclude from what I have read in this thread that PayPalPro would allow that right ? In fact, if I have this right, it would absolutely require the vendor site to decide for itself, yes ?

And so this follows on to my next question, especially for the possible later international sales ...


2. S2member Pro & the application of sales tax/VAT.
Back to a remark from bwold's query ...

bwold wrote:Hi all,

My client will be selling training videos online, using Specific Page access restrictions. Everything's working great, but PayPal is adding sales tax (they also sell the videos in DVD format, so the sales tax is appropriate there).

I may be wrong as to what bwold is saying, but it may be worth me trying to guess as it may help re my question below - you may know this anyway so please excuse me if I this is not news ...

DISCLAIMER: anybody else reading this thread, what follows is just my understanding - DON'T rely on my understanding for yourself, ask an expert !

From my dealings with the UK tax adminstrators, my understanding is that whether an online sale attracts VAT is dependent on at least these two things:
(a) The location of the buyer (and sometimes whether it's a "B2B" or "B2C" sale), and
(b) The type of product being sold.

So I think that the distinction being drawn by bwold is that some products his customer sells do attract VAT & others don't. For example, in the UK (AIUI) books and printed training materials do not generally attract VAT, but DVDs generally do ! So EU vendors may be selling more than one product from a site that shares a PayPal account with another (or even the same) site and because that PP a/c is configured to charge VAT, it gets put on everything - which may not be right. Hence the interest in a shortcode parameter which would allow some control over the correct application of the tax ...

So when you say ...

Jason Caldwell wrote:With s2Member Pro Forms, s2Member Pro allows you to configure taxes inside your WordPress Dashboard for all transaction types. With Standard PayPal "Buy Now" Buttons, taxes need to be configured inside your PayPal account instead.

(My emphasis)
... can I ask, with S2MemberPro ...
(a) Can we therefore set one product to be billed with tax, and one without if that's what's needed ?
(b) In terms of the location of the buyer, is there a way for us to determine this and to set it accordingly ? For example, is "country" on the checkout form and if so, is there a way of determining if it's in the EU (which may mean the sale would attract VAT) ?

I hope that all makes sense !

R.

The convention in the UK is to quote prices that include VAT. So although it does get added in once the purchase really gets in to full swing, I'd really prefer to have it included upfront, so that people are not seeing a price that starts out at £X, seems to drop to £Y, then goes back to £X (!) as they go through the checkout.

I conclude from what I have read in this thread that PayPalPro would allow that right ? In fact, if I have this right, it would absolutely require the vendor site to decide for itself, yes ?

s2Member Pro Forms initially display prices before tax. However, as the Pro Form is being completed, tax is indicated and a total is calculated for the customer during the checkout process via AJAX requests to s2Member. Taxes are calculated based on your configuration of s2Member Pro, and based on the customer's location, as entered into the Pro Form during checkout.

(My emphasis)
... can I ask, with S2MemberPro ...
(a) Can we therefore set one product to be billed with tax, and one without if that's what's needed ?
(b) In terms of the location of the buyer, is there a way for us to determine this and to set it accordingly ? For example, is "country" on the checkout form and if so, is there a way of determining if it's in the EU (which may mean the sale would attract VAT) ?

Yes, you can certainly build a tax configuration that considers the customer's country, even down to their postal code if you like, or even a postal code range. I'm attaching a screenshot of s2Member Pro's tax configuration section for PayPal.



As for turning taxes on/off globally. No, s2Member's tax configuration is applied to all items sold on your site. However, there is a simple way to hack this in when it's needed. Just be sure to add "no-tax" to the slug of each page that contains a Pro Form Shortcode facilitating checkout for a product/service in which tax should NOT be charged. Then, add this hack file as instructed below.

/wp-content/mu-plugins/s2-hacks.php
( these are MUST USE plugins, see: http://codex.wordpress.org/Must_Use_Plugins )

Code: Select all

<?php
add_action("ws_plugin__s2member_after_loaded", "s2_pro_tax_exclusions");
function s2_pro_tax_exclusions()
    {
        if(!is_admin() && strpos($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], "no-tax") !== false)
            {
                $GLOBALS["WS_PLUGIN__"]["s2member"]["o"]["pro_default_tax"] = "0.0%";
                $GLOBALS["WS_PLUGIN__"]["s2member"]["o"]["pro_tax_rates"] = "";
            }
    }
?>

OK Jason - thanks for your lengthy response. I think it means that it all looks good, but I'll go over it again later and get back to you if I have any further questions.

R.