The Value-Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax on purchases of goods or services and other taxable supplies in the European Union. In Canada and India, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is also applied.
In your LearnWorlds school, you can use our built-in integration with Quaderno or Stripe Tax to automatically apply taxes on the checkout page or explore the other options listed below to handle taxes according to your needs. The integrations offered allow you to calculate, collect, and report taxes seamlessly, by simplifying the handover of tax records and payments to authorities in each jurisdiction, ensuring compliance with local tax regulations without the administrative burden.
An effective tax management system is crucial to ensuring compliance with local tax laws and providing a seamless purchasing experience for your students.
Default Pricing and Tax calculation
If your charging rate remains consistent, the optimal strategy is to integrate the tax into your school's invoice settings, ensuring it applies uniformly to all products and orders. Moreover, you can personalize the invoice tax message to notify your users that all prices include taxes.
If your customers are from the EU, you must charge VAT and pay it to the respective tax authorities. Nevertheless, there are some examples where you may choose not to display VAT for your online courses. For instance, for orders from customers in the EU, taxes may not be applicable if your online courses include live interactions, such as one-on-one live sessions.
For more information, you can check the below links from gov.uk and European Commission:
- VAT rules for supplies of digital services to consumers
- VAT for electronically supplied services in the EU
If you still need to calculate and charge taxes for your courses, there are a few options to consider!
Integration with Quaderno
Quaderno is a tool designed for sales tax calculation. It automates the generation of tax receipts and prepares sales tax return-ready reports quickly. As an invoicing application, Quaderno simplifies the taxation process and helps you comply with EU VAT rules.
If you opt for Quaderno's built-in integration with LearnWorlds, here's what you need to know:
Functionality: Once integrated, students will be requested to provide location information every time they purchase a course through the LearnWorlds payment page.
Tax Calculation: This location data helps Quaderno determine the customer's country and apply the appropriate tax rate.
For a step-by-step guide on setting up Quaderno with LearnWorlds, check our detailed integration article here.
Integration with Stripe Tax
Stripe Tax allows you to calculate, collect, and report taxes on all payments in over 40 countries with a single integration. It simplifies the taxation process and EU VAT compliance rules.
If you choose to use Stripe Tax built-in integration with LearnWorlds, here's what you need to know:
Functionality: Once activated, when a student purchases your courses through the LearnWorlds Payment Page, Stripe Tax will request location information from the users at checkout.
Tax Calculation: This ensures the correct tax percentage rate is applied based on the customer's location.
For more information on setting up Stripe Tax with LearnWorlds, check our detailed article here.
- Stripe Tax and Quaderno cannot be activated simultaneously; you can only use one of the two integrations for your tax calculation.- You can use Stripe Tax or Quaderno with any integrated payment gateway for your school.
Integration with Shopify
If you would like to offer only one-off payment courses and bundles to your users, Shopify can handle the VAT of EU customers since it has geolocation. The VAT in the invoices will be issued automatically according to the country of your customer.
Shopify is offered as a built-in integration, and you can check this article for more information, and the following Shopify link for tax information.
External Payment Checkouts
Apart from Quaderno and Stripe Tax, as a built-in integration, you can also use an external payment checkout for your courses that support your tax requirements. Some popular solutions are:
If you proceed with receiving the payment externally, as soon as you confirm the incoming payment, you can manually enroll the user in your Products, or you can automate the process via Zapier (available in the Pro Trainer plan or higher) or our API (available in the Learning Center plan or higher).
With our seamless integrations and comprehensive guides, you can ensure compliance with local tax laws and provide a smooth purchasing experience for your students. Choose the method that best fits your needs, and LearnWorlds will support you every step of the way.