Use this guide to understand Cademy’s Automatic Tax/VAT Handling BETA feature, configure a tax profile and course classification, and recognise cases that need further checking.
What automatic handling uses
A tax profile holds settings such as your tax rate, registration details and whether tax is included in prices or added to them. Tax Course Type is the classification used for a course’s automatic tax calculation. It is separate from the course’s title and ordinary delivery settings. To set up a tax profile without automatic handling, see Set Up VAT for Course Sales.
At checkout, automatic handling uses the applicable profile’s tax-registration country, the customer’s country and individual-or-business details, the course’s tax classification and, for event admission, its location. A supplied VAT number also affects some business-customer rules.
This BETA feature does not automatically look up a destination country’s tax rate. For some cross-border online or digital sales to individuals, the matching rule is one for tax in the customer’s country, and the current calculation charges no tax for that rule.
Check access and supported countries
System Admins configure account tax profiles. A Course Owner with access to a course can edit its tax classification. Automatic handling is a plan feature and is included in the Teams plan. If the Automatic Tax/VAT Handling switch cannot be changed, your account does not currently have the feature. See Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees, or ask Cademy Support what your account includes.
The current automatic rules cover providers with Country of tax registration set to United Kingdom or Netherlands. The selector offers other countries too, but selecting one does not make it supported. Do not select a different country merely to enable a calculation.
Configure the intended tax profile
Enable automatic handling and save
Open Settings > Payments as a System Admin. Expand Tax / VAT. Open Default Tax Profile Options, or the existing additional profile you intend the course to use.
Turn on Enable Tax/VAT for this profile to display its tax controls. Review Tax / VAT rate, Your registered Tax/VAT Number, Tax Label, and Show prices without the Tax/VAT included. Automatic handling still uses the configured rate when it charges tax.
Check the rate before saving. The current editor uses whole percentages; ask Cademy Support if you need a decimal rate.
Turn on Automatic Tax/VAT Handling, marked BETA. Select the correct Country of tax registration. A box headed This feature is in BETA appears under the country. It ends with this text: “Disclaimer: Tax calculations are provided for convenience only. Please verify their accuracy independently. Cademy does not accept responsibility for any errors and recommends consulting a tax professional.”
Review the other changes on the Payments page and select Save in Tax / VAT. Reopen the account’s Settings > Payments > Tax / VAT and confirm the saved values. Resolve any error or missing saved value before relying on the setup.
For the default profile, or an additional profile with its own saved setting, turning Show prices without the Tax/VAT included on adds tax to the entered price when tax is charged; turning it off includes tax in that price. Check the saved configuration and final total, especially for inherited settings.
Save is disabled if any profile has automatic handling enabled without a tax-registration country. Check every such profile, including a profile whose tax switch is off.
The default profile applies when a course has no additional profile selected. Unset values on an additional profile can inherit defaults, including automatic handling. An off-looking switch does not prove an unset value is explicitly off. Check the intended profile and default together; ask Cademy Support if the saved behaviour is unclear.
Check the course’s profile and classification
Choose Tax Course Type
Go to Courses, open the intended course and select Edit Course. Open the Settings tab, then Payments.
Under Payment Methods, check Tax Profile if it is shown. This selector appears when at least one additional tax profile exists. Select the intended saved profile, or Default Tax Profile.
Find Tax Course Type. The editor shows it when automatic handling is explicitly enabled on the selected profile, or on the default if no additional profile is selected. If the control is missing, check the profile; if automatic handling is inherited from the default but the control stays hidden, ask Cademy Support before proceeding.
Choose the classification that matches the service you supply.
Select Save at the top of the course editor. In that same course, reopen Settings > Payments and check the saved profile and Tax Course Type.
The Tax Course Type options appear in this order:
Use Default (...): shows the classification inferred from the course’s type and delivery settings.
In-Person Event / Admission
Training Service
Virtual Live Event
Self-Paced Digital Content
An on-demand course defaults to Self-Paced Digital Content. Other courses with online delivery default to Virtual Live Event; on-demand delivery defaults to Self-Paced Digital Content. In-person, hybrid and other delivery settings default to Training Service.
For In-Person Event / Admission, check the event location. The calculation takes the course date’s country first, then the course’s address country; if neither supplies a usable location, it falls back to the provider’s tax-registration country. An event abroad needs its correct location, and the feature still does not automatically choose that country’s rate.
Understand calculation limits
Configured rate: when the automatic rule charges tax, it uses the applicable profile’s rate. It does not replace that rate with a destination-country rate.
Destination-country tax: for some cross-border online or digital sales to individuals, the matching rule is one for tax in the customer’s country. The current calculation charges no tax for that rule. Contact Cademy Support before using automatic handling for such sales.
Fallback calculation: the ordinary tax-profile calculation applies if the profile’s tax-registration country is missing or unsupported, the customer type is unavailable, a supplied customer country cannot be recognised, or no automatic rule matches. A missing customer country can instead use an automatic rule for an unknown location. Switching automatic handling on does not guarantee that every transaction uses an automatic rule.
Manual orders: creating or editing an order in the Admin dashboard is a separate path. Do not assume it uses the same automatic calculation as customer checkout. Review its tax amounts before saving.
Requests and applications: an order created by accepting a request or an application does not use the automatic rules, and neither does a booking made directly on an On-request course. The ordinary tax-profile calculation applies to these orders, even if the checkout summary showed a different tax amount. Review the tax amount on such an order.
What the automatic rules charge
When automatic handling is on for the profile a course uses and an automatic rule matches the sale, the rule decides whether tax is charged. The result depends on the profile’s Country of tax registration, the course’s Tax Course Type, whether the customer buys as an individual or a business, the customer’s country and, in one case, whether anything is entered in the tax-number field at checkout. Orders from requests, applications and On-request courses do not use these rules: see “Understand calculation limits”.
Different course types may have different VAT treatment.
Where a rule charges tax, Cademy uses the profile’s Tax / VAT rate, and only when Enable Tax/VAT for this profile is on. Where a rule charges no tax, the customer pays the price as entered and the tax amount is 0. This is also the case when the profile includes tax in its prices: the price is not reduced.
The lists below cover every automatic rule for United Kingdom and Netherlands profiles. In them, an EU country means one of the 27 EU member states, so the United Kingdom is outside the EU.
For a course whose Tax Course Type is In-Person Event / Admission, tax is charged to every customer, individual or business, in every country. The rest of this section is about the other three types: Training Service, Virtual Live Event and Self-Paced Digital Content. For these, tax is also charged when the checkout has no country for the customer.
Individual customers
United Kingdom profile: tax is charged when the customer’s country is the United Kingdom. No tax is charged for any other country.
Netherlands profile, Training Service: tax is charged for every country.
Netherlands profile, Virtual Live Event or Self-Paced Digital Content: tax is charged when the customer’s country is the Netherlands. No tax is charged for any other country.
Example: a United Kingdom profile has a 20% rate and adds tax to prices, and a £499 course is classified as Training Service. An individual whose country is France pays £499, with no tax. An individual whose country is the United Kingdom pays £598.80, of which £99.80 is tax.
Business customers
For a business customer, Training Service, Virtual Live Event and Self-Paced Digital Content all give the same result. It depends on the business’s country.
Business in the same country as the course provider
Tax is charged.
Business in another EU country
United Kingdom profile: no tax is charged. The tax-number field makes no difference.
Netherlands profile: no tax is charged when something is entered in the tax-number field. When the field is left blank, tax is charged.
Cademy does not check what is entered in the tax-number field. Any entry counts.
Example: a Netherlands profile has a 21% rate and adds tax to prices, and a €500 course is classified as Virtual Live Event. A business in Germany that leaves the tax-number field blank pays €605, of which €105 is tax. With an entry in the field, it pays €500.
Business outside the EU
No tax is charged to a business in a country that is outside the EU and is not the profile’s own country. For a Netherlands profile this includes the United Kingdom. The tax-number field makes no difference.
Check customer details and the final total
For a published course, open it from Courses and select Open in new tab beside Share to open its public page. Customers should check their own details and the final checkout summary before payment. When investigating an unexpected amount, compare the details used for that checkout with the course’s tax profile and classification. If the course is unpublished or cannot be booked, ask Cademy Support how to check the setup without publishing it or making a payment just for testing.
The checkout uses supplied customer and billing details. The calculation uses the customer’s individual-or-business answer when one is supplied. Otherwise, selected or newly entered organisation details identify a business; without those details, the calculation treats the customer as an individual. The country comes from billing details, with contact-address information used as a fallback where applicable.
Customers completing a business billing form should check Business Name, Billing Email, the tax-number field, PO Number and Billing Address. The tax-number label follows the configured Tax Label, such as VAT Number. An individual using Same as contact details must also check the address supplied in their contact details.
Customers changing their own details should recheck the tax amount and total before payment. If a customer reports an unexpected result or a summary that does not update, investigate before asking them to complete payment. When contacting Cademy Support, include the course link, profile name, relevant countries, course classification and unexpected amount.
Frequently asked questions
Why is tax being added?
Check the selected tax profile and checkout details. The total can come from an automatic rule or the ordinary profile calculation when no automatic result is available. Automatic handling is not the only reason tax appears.
Why can the tax amount change when billing details change?
The customer country and individual-or-business details are inputs to the calculation. Recheck the summary after changing them. If it does not reflect the intended details, contact Cademy Support before payment.
Why is no tax charged to a business customer?
The automatic rules charge no tax to a business in a country other than the profile’s own, with two exceptions: a course classified as In-Person Event / Admission, and, for a Netherlands profile, a business in another EU country that leaves the tax-number field blank. In those two cases tax is charged.
Can a business leave the VAT number blank?
The standard business billing form does not require that field, but its absence can change the automatic rule and tax amount.
Can I change the tax classification for one course?
Yes. Use Tax Course Type in Edit Course > Settings > Payments when the control is available. Choose the classification matching the service, save and recheck it. A missing control can require checking the selected profile and inherited settings.
Why is no tax charged even though Tax / VAT is enabled?
Compare the sale with the cases under “What the automatic rules charge”: the customer’s country, whether they bought as an individual or a business, the course’s Tax Course Type and, for a Netherlands profile, the tax-number field. Also check that Enable Tax/VAT for this profile is on for the profile the course uses. When it is off, no tax is charged.
Is automatic handling included on every plan and for every country?
No. The Teams plan includes the feature. On any other plan, ask Cademy Support whether your account has it. Current automatic rules cover UK and Netherlands tax-registration countries. A country appearing in the selector does not prove it is supported.