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Stripe Tax

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Re: Stripe Tax

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe also offers interchange plus pricing, but you’ll have to badger them for it… if you’re selling in Europe it can work out much cheaper, but it depends (eg amex would cost you much more). Also the exchange rates can be avoided by setting up bank accounts with different currencies (eg transferwise —- now wise). This alone saved us a bundle.

Only true for EU-domiciled companies - https://stripe.com/docs/payouts#supported-accounts-and-settl...

We are. If I understand correctly also the UK, where I believe GP is based.

Re: Stripe Tax

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the convinces of Paddle is hard to beat, especially for sole developer and small companies. Liability shift being indeed very powerful. But I also think the percentages thrown around are too sinistic. If you make ~5 figures a month in revenue it becomes very doable to hold a Euro and USD bank account in addition to your local currency, likely covering a fair amount of your customer base. Suddenly your co…

Sure, you can hold accounts in multiple currencies. However, if you're a sole developer or small business bringing in low-six-figure revenues, you're probably going to want to take much of that revenue out of the company to pay its people on a regular basis. That in turn probably means transferring it to your primary bank account and converting the currency to your primary currency in the process, which will incur a…

True, but wise accounts make it easier and also cheaper than 2% that Stripe charges.

Re: Stripe Tax

#363
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paddle is fundamentally different to Stripe. As you said they a merchant of record. Your customers purchase via Paddle, manage the subscription etc via them. Disputes would be via them too. Something to bear in mind.

Sure, the model is different, but that still doesn't make signing up to an impossible promise with unbounded liability when you inevitably break it a good idea. What happens if Paddle are faced with a customer who is getting snotty about a bug and threatening litigation in an expensive jurisdiction? Paddle apparently have the right under their terms to settle that dispute on whatever terms they wish and then pass the…

I've been happy with them so far, although I only have a few customers. The backend dashboard feels a little MVP but everything works well. The checkout flow is also hosted so you just embed that into your app which is nice.

Re: Stripe Tax

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know if Paddle files taxes for you? And just send you 1099? Or it is similar to Stripe Tax, they just collect and you have to file taxes?

I use Paddle, they do file 99% of your taxes for you. In effect, they sell the product to customers, and handle all the tax on that side, for every tax regime in the world. Meanwhile you act as a company with a single B2B client and one invoice a month (covering Paddle's net sales minus 5%) instead of N invoices. They send you an email every month with your 'reverse invoice'. As accountancy goes it's extremely easy,…

> Meanwhile you act as a company with a single B2B client and one invoice a month

There were some changes in this area recently. Paddle is now providing you two reverse invoices each month, one for sales in the USA done by Paddle.com Inc. and one for sales in the rest of the world done by Paddle.com Market Ltd.

For the accounting purposes you have two B2B clients (belonging to the same group). You still receive a single wire transfer though.

Re: Stripe Tax

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find working with Paddle? They've been on our shortlist for a new project and we've heard only positive things from people who actually use them. However, their terms could make any lawyer or company officer who actually read them visibly wince, and so far that has prevented us from engaging with them despite their clear advantages over the traditional payment services.

I've been using Paddle (and thus not worrying about VAT) for years now. They're mostly pretty good, although I use a very limited subset of their functionality, I basically just use them as a payment gateway. Their support is responsive and helpful, especially in the last year or so, and I haven't had any downtime to speak of. They don't accept all the payment methods that Stripe does, but enough for me. There are a…

> they don't really have any sort of proper test system, which is pretty unbelievable

They fixed this a little while back. There's now a fully independent sandbox environment: https://developer.paddle.com/getting-started/sandbox

Re: Stripe Tax

#366
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the model is different, but that still doesn't make signing up to an impossible promise with unbounded liability when you inevitably break it a good idea. What happens if Paddle are faced with a customer who is getting snotty about a bug and threatening litigation in an expensive jurisdiction? Paddle apparently have the right under their terms to settle that dispute on whatever terms they wish and then pass the…

I've been happy with them so far, although I only have a few customers. The backend dashboard feels a little MVP but everything works well. The checkout flow is also hosted so you just embed that into your app which is nice.

Thanks for the first-hand insights.

Re: Stripe Tax

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, you can hold accounts in multiple currencies. However, if you're a sole developer or small business bringing in low-six-figure revenues, you're probably going to want to take much of that revenue out of the company to pay its people on a regular basis. That in turn probably means transferring it to your primary bank account and converting the currency to your primary currency in the process, which will incur a…

True, but wise accounts make it easier and also cheaper than 2% that Stripe charges.

Indeed. That seems to be what GoCardless are using now, and as mentioned above, they work out much cheaper than Stripe for international payments with currency conversion.

Re: Stripe Tax

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The law already was that the purchaser should remit use tax to the state for purchasers from out-of-state vendors. But compliance was basically non-existent; most people didn't even know that they owed use tax on such sales, much less what rate would apply. Sales tax is basically use tax, but with the burden of compliance placed on the seller. As for why the sellers' state is not entitled to sales tax: in the old-tim…

> But compliance was basically non-existent; most people didn't even know that they owed use tax on such sales As a business owner, I would ask myself “how is this my problem?” If a stare has a problem with residents not complying with a tax, I am not sure why a business in another state should care. If I buy a product from China, are they required to collect sales taxes for Montana? Of course not. So not sure why a…

My purchases on AliExpress have been being charged my state sales tax for quite some time.

Re: Stripe Tax

#369
post #126

So how does one pay tax with this? Let's say you and your server are in Singapore. You are selling a digital product - PDF book on dynamically typed Rust... You have customers from all 50 US states and all European countries. You have 100k USD sales total. At the end of the year are you obliged to send the correct amount of tax to EACH US state and each EU country?

Check with Singapore authorities, or Singapore "IRS". If you are a tax resident of Singapore, that's the only country you are liable for.
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