SaleMint – Paddle Checkout for WooCommerce vs Tax Exemption for WooCommerce

SaleMint – Paddle Checkout for WooCommerce connects your WooCommerce store to Paddle, a merchant-of-record payment platform built for digital products. Paddle handles the checkout, tax calculation, and invoicing, while this plugin keeps your WooCommerce orders fully in sync. Need subscriptions? This free plugin handles one-time payments. For recurring billing, free trials, a Buy Now button, a self-serve customer portal, and one-click invoices, see SaleMint Paddle Pro — it’s a superset of this plugin, so nothing you’re already using changes. Full setup docs: salemint.io/docs/paddle/introduction. How it works When a customer places an order, the plugin opens Paddle’s hosted checkout (modal or full-page). After the customer completes payment, the Paddle transaction ID is captured and attached to the WooCommerce order. The plugin then fetches the authoritative order totals from Paddle — including any tax Paddle applied — and updates the WooCommerce order to match, so your records are always accurate. Key features Classic checkout & WooCommerce Blocks — Works with both the classic WooCommerce checkout and the modern block-based checkout. Modal or full-page checkout — Choose between an overlay modal or a full-page Paddle checkout, configurable from the gateway settings. Sandbox / live mode — Toggle between Paddle’s sandbox environment for testing and the live environment for production, without touching any code. Digital-only enforcement — The Paddle payment option is automatically hidden whenever the cart contains a physical product that requires shipping. This prevents it from appearing for orders Paddle cannot fulfil. Paddle tax categories — Assign a Paddle tax category (e.g. standard, digital-goods, ebooks, SaaS, software) to products, with a configurable store-wide default. Supports all 13 Paddle tax classifications. Coupon sync — WooCommerce coupons applied at checkout are forwarded to Paddle as discounts, so the transaction amount in Paddle always reflects the discounted total. Cart fee sync — Extra fees added to the cart (e.g. handling fees or surcharges) are passed to Paddle as line items and synced back after payment, keeping both records consistent. Automatic order totals sync — After payment, the plugin synchronises WooCommerce order totals — including line-item subtotals, discounts, fees, tax lines, and the grand total — with the values reported by Paddle. An order note is added documenting the sync for auditing purposes. Transaction & invoice ID tracking — The Paddle transaction ID and invoice ID are saved directly to the WooCommerce order and visible on the order detail screen. Transaction URL — A direct link to the Paddle transaction is saved with each order so you can jump straight to the Paddle dashboard from WooCommerce. Refund support — Initiate full or partial refunds from the standard WooCommerce refund interface; the plugin forwards the refund to Paddle automatically. Invoice button on order screen — A one-click button on the admin single-order page lets you open or download the Paddle-generated invoice without leaving WooCommerce. Order-pay page support — Customers can retry a failed or pending payment from the WooCommerce order-pay page; billing details are pre-populated automatically. Light and dark themes — Choose between Paddle’s light and dark checkout UI to match your store’s design. Free vs Pro Everything above is free, forever. SaleMint Paddle Pro is an add-on that layers recurring billing and its supporting tools on top — install it alongside this plugin and every free feature keeps working unchanged. Pro adds: Per-product Paddle tax category override WooCommerce Subscriptions support Signup fee handling Free trial support Auto-renewal via webhook, with HMAC-SHA256 signature verification Early renewal Update payment method from My Account Self-serve customer portal Buy Now button (Gutenberg block and Elementor widget) Customer invoices (View & Generate, cached and auto-regenerated) See the full Pro documentation or get Pro. Requirements PHP 8.1 or higher WordPress 6.0 or higher WooCommerce (latest recommended) A Paddle account with an API key and client-side token External Services This plugin connects to Paddle’s servers to process payments and load the Paddle JavaScript SDK. By using this plugin you agree to Paddle’s terms and privacy policy. Paddle JavaScript SDK The Paddle checkout SDK is loaded from Paddle’s CDN on any page where the payment gateway is active: Production: https://cdn.paddle.com/paddle/v2/paddle.js Sandbox: same URL (environment is set via the client-side token) This script is provided by Paddle.com Inc. and is required to open the hosted checkout modal. Paddle website Paddle Terms of Service Paddle Privacy Policy Paddle REST API The plugin communicates with the Paddle REST API from your server to create transactions and retrieve order details: Production: https://api.paddle.com Sandbox: https://sandbox-api.paddle.com Data sent includes order line items, customer billing information (email, country, postcode), and currency. No data is sent unless a customer initiates checkout.

Let your customers declare that they are exempt from tax on WooCommerce checkout, provide the details to back it up, and have tax removed from their order automatically. This is useful if you have some customers that are eligible to be exempt from tax on your products, for example for the purpose of disability VAT exemption or charity VAT relief, or business customers supplying a VAT number. Getting Started Simply install the “Tax Exemption plugin for WooCommerce” plugin, and visit the “Tax Exemption” settings page under “WooCommerce” in the WordPress admin. Configure the plugin settings as required: Enable or disable the tax exemption feature. Select the tax class to use for the Tax / VAT exemption. Select the location on checkout to display the tax exemption fields. Show the tax exemption checkbox and fields on the cart page too, and choose where. Enable or disable removal of tax on shipping for exempt customers. Enable or disable the tax exemption fields on the “My Account” page. Choose which details to collect – the name and reason fields can each be shown, hidden, or made required. Collect a registration number (VAT number, charity number, ABN and more) and choose which types you accept. Get an email whenever a tax exempt order is placed. Customise the text/labels used throughout the plugin. Your customers will then be able to select the “I want to claim tax exemption” checkbox on the checkout page, and enter their tax exemption details. Tax will be removed from their order if this is checked and they have entered their details successfully. Where The Form Appears The tax exemption form works on the classic checkout, the WooCommerce block checkout, the cart page, and the “My Account” page, for both guests and logged in customers. You can also place it anywhere else on your site with the [tefw_exemption_form] shortcode. Managing Exempt Customers & Orders Exempt Customers – a searchable list of every customer claiming tax exemption, along with their details. Customers can be added and edited here directly. Exempt Orders – every order placed with tax exemption, filterable by date. If an order is marked as tax / VAT exempt, this will be shown on the admin order details page, where you can see the tax exempt details. An optional column on the orders list marks which orders were exempt. Each customer’s exemption details can also be viewed and edited from their WordPress user profile. Tax exemption details are included in WordPress personal data exports and erasure requests. PRO Version The PRO version offers several additional features including: Registration number verification (VAT, charity, ABN, GSTIN and more). Live lookups against the official registers – VIES, HMRC, the Australian Business Register and the Charity Commission. Automatic approval for customers whose number verifies. Consultation references recorded as proof that a number was checked. Re-check a customer’s stored number at any time. Option to show ex-tax prices to exempt customers across the whole store. Optional “inc/ex tax” price toggle for every visitor. Custom tax exemption form fields. Tax exemption certificate upload field. Tax exemption expiration date field. Automatic expiry reminder & expired notification emails. Customisable exemption request, approval and decline emails. Default validity period (auto-calculate expiration dates). Tax exemption city/state field. Tax exemption fields on registration form. Exemption status management for admins. Only allow exemption for approved users. Hide the tax exemption fields on checkout. Only remove tax from specific products. Only allow exemption for logged in users. Only allow exemption for selected user roles. Only allow exemption for selected countries. Only allow exemption for selected states/cities. Customize the tax class for each user. Export CSV files of exempt customers. Export CSV files of exempt orders. Integration with “AvaTax”. UPGRADE TO PRO