Payment Form>>Subscriptions: why is it not possible to add Tax on subscription types?

  • Nathan Sutherland
    Asked on January 15, 2019 at 2:24 PM

    Tax on Subscriptions - We also need to charge Tax on subscriptions.

  • Welvin Support Team Lead
    Replied on January 15, 2019 at 3:29 PM

    You cannot tax subscription-based payments. We have this note in the guide. It is unlikely to be implemented as it may violate the terms of the payment processors. 

  • A1Plumbing
    Replied on January 15, 2019 at 8:15 PM

    Wow, I had no idea. Legally we are REQUIRED to charge tax, so I wonder how folks do this?

    JotForm, we use Authorize.net as a processor. Could you point me in the right direction to find the documents from them that prohibit tax on subscriptions?

    My workaround:

     - Add a "General Area" radio group to the form for the top areas in which we will charge tax, and set the "values" to be the tax percentages (for 8.9%, use something like 1.089).

     - Add a "Calculated Total" hidden field above the payment processing area, one for each subscription term length. In our case we have a "Monthly Total" calculated field like "General Area * Monthly Subscription Cost.

     - For the subscriptions, set the PRICE to a "Variable Amount", and connect it to the calculated total for the same subscription term.

  • David JotForm Support Manager
    Replied on January 15, 2019 at 11:21 PM

    I would suggest you to contact them, so they can point you in the right direction to find the documents from them that prohibit Tax on subscriptions.

  • A1Plumbing
    Replied on January 16, 2019 at 11:24 AM

    So I did a few google searches and couldn't find anything AGAINST taxes on subscriptions. I did find a page that shows that it should be included

    https://account.authorize.net/help/Tools/Automated_Recurring_Billing/Create_a_New_ARB_Subscription.htm (search the page for "tax")

    and also opened a live support with them, in which they replied "We do not have a restriction on Sales Tax, that tax would need to be added to the total amount before submitting the amount to charge to us.".

    I realize it might be against other provider's terms of services, so is there any option you could enable it on a by-provider basis?

  • David JotForm Support Manager
    Replied on January 16, 2019 at 12:36 PM

    I'll forward this inquiry to our back-end team to get a more accurate answer. You will be updated via this thread.

  • A1Plumbing
    Replied on January 16, 2019 at 2:31 PM

    Thank you so much for your attention, I look forward to what they will say!