I am able to test in-app subscriptions by creating an inexpensive test subscription that is only shown on debug builds (but is in all other ways a valid product on Google Play). By using a test account described here I am able to purchase the subscription product and test end-to-end.
Here is what it says about test accounts:
To test your in-app billing implementation with actual in-app
purchases, you will need to register at least one test account on the
Google Play publisher site. You cannot use your developer account to
test the complete in-app purchase process because Google Wallet does
not let you buy items from yourself. If you have not set up test
accounts before, see Setting up test accounts.
Also, a test account can purchase an item in your product list only if
the item is published. The application does not need to be published,
but the item does need to be published.
When you use a test account to purchase items, the test account is
billed through Google Wallet and your Google Wallet Merchant account
receives a payout for the purchase. Therefore, you may want to refund
purchases that are made with test accounts, otherwise the purchases
will show up as actual payouts to your merchant account.