We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
We're happy Stripe customers, but our Stripe account is based in an EU country, and our entire volume is in USD. For some Stripe policy reason, we can't transfer USD from Stripe to our EU bank account, it's not allowed. You can only transfer USD to US or Canadian bank accounts. We've been in contact with Stripe support over this, and their recommended solution was to use Atlas and setup a US company and bank account,…
What Stripe support is really telling you is that you need a US bank account to avoid the exchange fees. This is more or less correct. As you say, though, they're misguided is in pushing Atlas. It's probably the simplest way for you to get a US bank account, but in many ways it's the worst long-term option. That's because Stripe Atlas creates a C-Corp, which is liable for US corporation taxes and has to file them every year.
You have two other options: 1) Get a US Bank account for your foreign company directly. This is not easy, many banks won't do it, but some will. E.g. I have a SVB account for a foreign corporation (with an EIN) so I can use Stripe in the US for my subscription app.
2) Form a US LLC that's fully owned by your EU corp. A single member LLC can elect to be tax transparent in the US. That means you don't have to pay US corporate taxes as long as you don't have business operations (employees, basically) in the US. With a US LLC it's relatively easy to open a US bank account, though you may need to travel to the US. If you want some expert tax advice for the US component of this setup here's a good guy to ask: http://ustax.bz/
Once you have a US bank account sorted you may need to migrate your Stripe subscriptions. This is not something that Stripe officially supports or will do for you, but after lots of digging with their support I was told that it's possible to do without requiring any re-opt-in from your subscribers. It's just that you need to do the migration yourself by transferring the subscription data. (Details escape me. Please confirm this with them yourself.)
What's the benefit of all this, other than adding a few percent to your gross profits? Well, the market for online business buyers is much stronger in the US than anywhere else. I'm betting on the fact that it'll be significantly easier to sell a business with a US Stripe account than a business with a German / Irish / Hong Kong / Singapore / whatever stripe account.
Of course we're talking a few percent here and a few percent here. Before diving into this rabbit hole I would ask yourself if marketing & sales for a few percent increase might not be less effort than all of the above.
Right, that was a bit long-winded. I don't monitor my replies here much, but feel free to ping me if you have questions.
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