How to add GST/Tax to a Subscription Plan?

Questions
,
1

Hello,

I am trying to move away from manually creating invoices in the Web UI, and trying to use the subscription API endpoint.

My invoice need to be for $25 per month (10% GST included)

I’ve started down the “Subscription Plan” approach as per the subscription walkthrough docs.

And I’ve added a 10% tax using the tax_percentage option on the Subscriptions API endpoint

Example of the invoice this creates, note the tax isn’t inclusive and it says No GST has been charged.

(image here, it didn’t let me embed)

However I really need it to create an invoice like this recurring invoice that has GST included in the total:

(image here, it didn’t let me embed)

How can I achieve the same thing I can do in the Web dashboard via the API?

I tried adding tax_data to the SUBSCRIPTION_PLAN catalog object as it seemed some types of catalog items supported tax_data, however that gave me an error message of: Non-TAX object has TAX data.

e.g.

/v2/catalog/object

{ "idempotency_key": "1", "object": { "type": "SUBSCRIPTION_PLAN", "id": "#plan", "tax_data": { "name": "GST", "calculation_phase": "TAX_TOTAL_PHASE", "inclusion_type": "INCLUSIVE", "percentage": "10.0", "applies_to_custom_amounts": true, "enabled": true }, "subscription_plan_data": { "name": "Monthly Membership", "phases": [ { "cadence": "MONTHLY", "recurring_price_money": { "amount": 2500, "currency": "AUD" } } ] } } }

{"errors":[{"category":"INVALID_REQUEST_ERROR","code":"INVALID_VALUE","detail":"Non-TAX object has TAX data.","field":"catalog_object.tax_data"}]}

Thanks,
Dave

2

Ah, I found an example here that shows how to attach tax to an item, I’ll try that with subscription: https://developer.squareup.com/docs/catalog-api/what-it-does#reference-other-objects-by-their-ids

3

Perfect! Feel free to reach out with any additional questions. We’re always happy to help. :slightly_smiling_face:

4

@Bryan-Square thanks, unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work, there didn’t seem to be a way to specify a tax_id for SUBSCRIPTION_PLAN like you can for ITEM:

image
image484×668 22.1 KB

Can I please request a tax_id feature for subscription plans?

Right now I’m going back to making orders/invoices manually.

5

I have hit exactly the same problem.
The Upsert Catalog Object allows an SUBSCRIPTION_PLAN, but I cannot add tax (VAT in the UK) to the object. This does seem to be an oversight, since most subscription services (e.g. Amazon, Netflix) charge VAT.
Is there a time line to allow TAX to be added to a Subscription plan?
Would it be possible to change the rate of TAX on a subscription plan after it has been created, as TAX rates do change!

6

We’re constantly working to improve our features based on feedback like this, so I’ll be sure to share your request to the API product team. :slightly_smiling_face:

7

Is there any update on teh ability within the API to add TAX (VAT in the UK) to a subscription. Failing that, is there another way we could accomplish the same thing by another method.

Thanks in advance

8

At this time we don’t have any additional updates on this. Also this is just how it’s reported in Square. If the total of the subscription does include the VAT tax then a tax professional will be able to properly report on is based on the total amount charged for the subscription. :slightly_smiling_face:

9

Bryan

Thanks for the feedback.

So, we we’re planning on using the Create Checkout Link API to create a subscription. When we tried this, the customer was sent 2 emails:
Thank you for subscribing to and You paid an invoice!

Is it possible to configure Square NOT to send the invoice email - if this was possible we may be able to use Square, otherwise we will have to consider alternative payment methods.

Thanks.

10

At this time the ability to disable the emails that are sent to a customer when they subscribe and pay for a subscription isn’t currently possible with the Checkout API. :slightly_smiling_face: