$0 Order Checkout

Hi @nstrege,

I see what you are trying to achieve here, and it makes sense to question why Stripe is involved at all when these manager only products are intentionally set to $0 with no shipping and no tax. I will help clarify what is likely happening and check a key detail with you.

In WooCommerce, if Stripe is enabled as a payment method at checkout, WooCommerce will still initialize Stripe during checkout even when the order total is $0. If Stripe Tax is enabled, Stripe can make a Tax API call during that process, and that is what results in the “Tax API Transaction” fee you are seeing. This happens even though no payment is actually captured.

To make sure we are pointing you in the right direction, can you confirm whether these $0 products are going through the same checkout flow as paid products, with Stripe enabled as an available payment method. If these internal orders do not require any payment processing at all, one option is to avoid using Stripe for that checkout entirely by using WooCommerce’s built in no payment required flow for zero total orders, or by disabling Stripe for that specific storefront or product group. That way Stripe is never called and no Tax API request is made.

It would also be helpful to confirm whether Stripe Tax is enabled globally in your Stripe settings for this site, as that is what triggers the Tax API call even when the total is zero. This guide explains how Stripe Tax integrates with WooCommerce and which settings control it: https://woocommerce.com/document/stripe-tax/

Once you confirm how checkout is configured for these $0 orders, I can guide you more precisely on the cleanest setup to avoid Stripe involvement altogether.

Hi @nstrege,

I see why this is confusing, and the key point here is that Stripe and Stripe Tax are only needed for the storefront where real payments are taken. If the manager products live on a completely separate site and those products are always $0, there is no need to have Stripe or Stripe Tax enabled on that site at all.

If Stripe and Stripe Tax are enabled, WooCommerce will still contact Stripe during checkout, even for $0 orders, and that is what causes the Tax API fee. Removing Stripe from the checkout flow for those manager orders is what prevents Stripe from being called in the first place.

To help narrow this down and give you the right recommendation, can you clarify how this is set up today. Are you using two separate sites, one for customers and one for managers, or is everything running on a single site with different products. If it is two sites, are they part of a WordPress multisite network, or are they completely separate installs.

Once I know that, I can point you to the simplest setup so Stripe is only used where it is actually needed.