subscriptions with tax and discount facility

[adam_paxton]

Hi,

Really hoping someone can help. I have eMember and eStore plugins and am trying to provide the following functionality to a site:

1 – Allow members to subscribe and pay through PayPal (£150 upfront which is their first three months and then £50 per month after)

2 – Display 20% tax on top of the membership fee (£150 + £30 tax and then £50 + £10 for each month after)

3 – Provide users the option to supply a discount code if they have one (i.e 10% off your membership if you use the code ‘maytimemadness’)

I can create a subscription button no problem and link it to a product and using the trial billing for 3 months set to £150 for the product I can achieve number 1 in the list above.

However, the problem comes when I want to use discount code or add tax!

I think what I need to do is have the subscription add as a product to the cart rather than just be a button that goes straight through to PayPal. If I include the cart on the subscription page then I get the discount and tax functionality but it just sees it as being a £50 item and not a subscription with the first three months payment up front.

This is the site I’m working on if it helps…

http://particular.pro/register

Well done on a great product – I have a feeling this is a problem with me rather than your product!

Many thanks

[amin007]

The issue is not with you. PayPal does not support sales tax for subscription payment. This post from the official paypal site should explain:

https://www.x.com/thread/20172

The only workaround until this feature is available would be to add the tax and shipping to the amount being charged on a recurring basis. You could state on your site that tax and shipping are already configured into the price. So basically, Prices include tax already.

[adam_paxton]

Ahhh that’s a bit disappointing but as you say I’ll just set the membership price to be £180 (3 x £50 + VAT) and tell subscribers the price is inclusive of VAT.

However, this doesn’t get me around my 3rd point on my list – I really need to be able to provide discount functionality to a subscriber membership!

The website supports new startups with legal information and I need to be able to provide discount codes t allow small startups to get 50% off, companies from certain sectors 30% off, etc.

How would I go about providing a discount code in combination with a membership subscription?

Many thanks for the help

[amin007]

Discount coupons does not work on subscriptions for the very same reason tax doesn’t.

One way to handle this is to use a password protected page.

Here is a very basic example: You create two subscription buttons (one with full price option and one with the discounted option). The coupon code (some random characters) can be the password to this special page which has the discounted button. Anyone who has this coupon code will be able to get the discounted price. This is just a simple example so it may not fit your needs but you can get fancy with this approach if you use a membership plugin (subscription buttons are usually used with a membership site).

[adam_paxton]

Hi,

I understand what you are suggesting but I can’t work out how I would implement it – can you break it down a little more for me please?

I sent up the normal subscription page (£50 + VAT per month) and make other variations of the subscription page but at different prices to match my discount codes (i.e 20% discount would be £40 + VAT per month, etc).

But I don’t really understand how I would implement the password protected page to redirect them to the correct registration page?

I assume the user would access the registration page – have a button to register there and then at full price but there also be a link that says ‘click here if you have a discount code’ and then will take you to a password protected area depending on the code you enter?

Sorry – I just can’t get my head around it. I would really appreciate it if you could explain in a little more detail for me.

Thanks for your patience and help with this.

[amin007]

Create a page in WordPress then place your discounted button 1. Now make this page private. WordPress lets you make a page private with a password. We will use this password as the coupon code so anyone with this password can see this page and interact with this button (meaning they can get the discounted rate).

Now, on your “payment page” place the normal button and place a message that says that the customer can get a discount if they have a code (this is where you link to that private page and the customer will only be able to buy that discounted subscription if they have the special code)

If you have a membership plugin then you can do something a little fancy. Instead of making a private page in WordPress you can use the section protection of the membership plugin to protect these two discounted buttons. This way only your members from certain membership level can get that discounted rate.

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