Ask HN: How do you handle VAT / Sales Tax accounting as B2C SaaS?

Hey! I run a B2C SaaS and I use Stripe for all of my sales (subscriptions).

I am looking to learn how others handle their VAT / Sales Tax filing.

I know that the standard answer would be to use Paddle / LemonSqueezy / Polar.sh, but I already have a lot of subscribers on Stripe which makes quick migration non-trivial.

I am especially looking for some reliable accounting companies / accountants that can register and file Sales Tax across US, UK, Canada, Australia, etc. (It does not have to be a global solution).

It's my understanding that solutions like Stripe Tax, Alavara, Quaderno, etc. only help collect the necessary data (which I consider the easier part, at least for digital goods), but do not handle the registration & filing (though I've learned that Quaderno will support filing Sales Tax in the US on your behalf soon).

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Some jurisdictions are relatively easy to handle (for example, one can handle whole EU by uploading a simple CSV [1] once a quarter and the CSV is easy to generate from Stripe's records).

But unfortunately there are tons of others that are much more complicated and scattered -- for example, due to the economic nexus laws in the US, I now have to file Sales Tax in each individual state where I am over the threshold (and many states have thresholds in low hundreds of transactions, so it's not hard to reach).

[1]: https://www.elster.de/bportal/helpGlobal?themaGlobal=osseust_import

[2]: If you do not feel comfortable commenting here, you can also reach out at z2qmk@pekoi.com (temporary email)

That's exactly I am looking for. But I had some less than ideal experiences before, so I thought it might be a good idea to try to crowd-source some vetted options.

It's also unlikely that a single accountant will be comfortable filing taxes in all of the jurisdictions (or maybe I will be pleasantly surprised).

What a big question. With so many new sales taxes hitting rhe world its now a nightmare for us global companies, especially in the digital services and the travel industry.

We employ our own bookkeepers (in Africa) who operate a range of accounting systems for each company in the group (5 countries).

As CEO I tend to do the teaching and review but the team does the lodgement. (I am an Australian Chartered Accountant and former tax agent so get the rules fairly easily).

Most lodgements are online. The US is the exception. We also find there are free services for lodging electronically.

A lot of the accounting systems are way overpriced so we don't use many of their up market solutions.

We have built our own invoicing and Billing system this week with AI so expect we'll create more of our own apps over the coming year.

My bookkeeping team has some spare capacity so let me know if we can maybe help you out.

You're right. Most accountants make their money from local businesses. And global accounting firms charge the earth. It's easier to separate You're bookkeeping from your (expensive) accountants who are better set for strategic advice.

I happen to use Paddle. Happen because Stripe isn’t available in my country and Lemon Squeezy wasn’t around / was very new back then. It’s OK but it really irks me that they don’t really fight chargebacks. (I haven’t had many but the fee they throw on you automatically is so hefty for a B2C.)

Their V1 API (not Paddle “Billing”) is…not the best I’ve used.