Currently MemberMouse doesn't have native support for taxes or VAT.


We recognize the importance of providing tax support and our development team has started work on including this in MemberMouse. Providing tax support is complex and very involved so we're taking our time to ensure that the tax module we release supports a multitude of international tax scenarios.


If tax support is something that's essential to your business today, MemberMouse may not be the right solution for you.


Potential Workaround


DISCLAIMER: What we're about to explain to you is a workaround that some of our customers are using to "collect" taxes and works for them based on their unique situation. You should consult a tax professional familiar with tax laws in the regions you conduct business prior to using this method to determine if it will suffice for you.


A potential workaround involves two steps: 

  1. create a product for each tax region and include the tax that needs to be charged in the product price

  2. use a WordPress plugin to change the content on your site based on the location of the customer's IP address (aka geocoding) so you can display the appropriate product for the visitor's region. One such geocoding plugin is called Geocode Switch.

Example


For example, let's say that we have a Starter subscription product whose price is $10/month and we need to charge people in the United Kingdom and tax of $5 on top of that price (i.e. $15/month). 

1. Install the geocoding plugin (Geocode Switch) on your site. This detects the country of each visitor and allows you to create shortcodes which show content only to visitors from specific countries. 


2. Create two products in MemberMouse; one without the tax and one with the tax. 

TIP: When naming your products it's a good idea to include the price breakdown in the name of the product and in the description, including the base price, the tax amount and the final price so that when a receipt is created with the product description it has all the information.

In our example the following products would be created:

Product IDNameDescriptionPrice
1Starter Subscription ($10 per month ongoing)$10 per month ongoing for the Starter subscription$10/month
2Starter Subscription ($10+$5 tax per month ongoing )$10+$5 tax = $15 per month ongoing for the Starter subscription$15/month


3. Wherever you need a buy button, use the Geocode shortcodes to show the appropriate MemberMouse purchase link based on the visitor's location. We want the taxable product (product ID 2) to be displayed to all visitor's from the United Kingdom and the non-taxable product (product ID 1) to be shown to everyone else.  


In the WordPress page content it will look something like this:


[geoswitch]
[geoswitch_case country_code="GB"]<a href="[MM_Purchase_Link productId='2']">Buy Now (tax included)</a>[/geoswitch_case]
[geoswitch_case]<a href="[MM_Purchase_Link productId='1']">Buy Now</a>[/geoswitch_case]
[/geoswitch]

The above GeoSwitch block will display a link with the text "Buy Now (tax included)" to visitors in the United Kingdom and a link with the text "Buy Now" to any other visitor. See this page for more information on using Geocode Switch shortcodes. You can use Google to find the appropriate country or state ISO codes.