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Updates to US verification requirements

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Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#81

Post by anticorporate »

Arainach wrote: post #80
anticorporate wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the point. I don't operate a business from my home. I operate a business from my truck and from client sites. There literally is not a business at my home.

All businesses have a home. They must comply with a set of laws (yes, including business permits) and be able to respond to disputes. A business with no physical location is not practical in society.

> A business with no physical location is not practical in society.

That's an opinion, and my point is that I do not hold that opinion. It's only not practical because we make it impractical, not because any benefit is gained by forcing people to jump through hoops to set up and pay for virtual addresses.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#82

Post by cj »

JoshuaRowe wrote: post #74
Shank wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although its odd your error message is seemingly saying a personal address doesn't work, unless "private mailbox" means a privately rented commercial box, like UPS. Yeah, services like Earth Class Mail specifically hand out addresses that say "PMB XXXXXXXX" where PMB is "Private Mail Box".

My personal address isn't my business address. They are different. Mixing the two, while seemingly innocuous, actually can mean opening myself up to liability issues or a good argument that the biz that I operate isn't actually different from me the person. This isn't going to matter in 99% of things, but if you are ever sued, can be used as a reasoning to actually be able to retrieve damages from you the person vers…

I get that (and agree separating biz and personal as much as possible is 100% best practice)

But there are tons of legitimate businesses operated out of residential addresses (therapists, psychiatrists, chiropractors, etc). It’s not abnormal to use a home address for business purposes.

I’d recommend checking with your lawyer to verify, but I don’t think the address on your stripe (or even bank) account would legally make a difference

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#83

Post by hazmazlaz »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #42
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a sole practitioner (what this article is about) - by definition - your business is you. And you are most often in your home. It's not that complicated. You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house. I don't blame you. We all want to have cake and eat it, too.

> You want the benefits of a business while not having to worry about angry customers annoying you at your house. What's the alternative here? Pay a couple hundred a year for a forwarding address that is sufficiently real enough for Stripe to accept? Asking out of personal interest. I'm working on the solopreneur route and looking at what's available for myself. Would prefer to keep it away from my personal address.

Yes, this is the answer. Pay for a virtual address/agent, it's just part of the cost of doing business.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#84

Post by Arainach »

anticorporate wrote: post #81
Arainach wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All businesses have a home. They must comply with a set of laws (yes, including business permits) and be able to respond to disputes. A business with no physical location is not practical in society.

> A business with no physical location is not practical in society. That's an opinion, and my point is that I do not hold that opinion. It's only not practical because we make it impractical, not because any benefit is gained by forcing people to jump through hoops to set up and pay for virtual addresses.

The ability to compel someone to appear and answer for crimes committee by a business is a huge benefit. So is ensuring local businesses aren't undercut by businesses who claim no jurisdiction.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#85

Post by tinyprojects »

Shank wrote: post #13
cj wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the message I see in my account: > Invalid address. Your business address must be a valid physical address from which you conduct business and cannot be a P.O. Box. This address is not shared publicly and can be your personal address. You may use a P.O. Box as your customer support address. So in other words, a personal home address should work. Although its odd your error message is seemingly saying a person…

> Although its odd your error message is seemingly saying a personal address doesn't work, unless "private mailbox" means a privately rented commercial box, like UPS. Yeah, services like Earth Class Mail specifically hand out addresses that say "PMB XXXXXXXX" where PMB is "Private Mail Box".

I am facing this issue where I received an Earth Class Mail PMB XXXXX address when setting up my Stripe Atlas account and registering my business (I am a US non-resident), and now my account is being threatened to be shut down in 14 days if I don't get a new address. Is this a problem with Earth Class Mail addresses all being P.O box / virtual addresses? Or have I just gotten unlucky with the address I was dealt?

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#86

Post by tinyprojects »

Worth a shot if anyone can help me out / is facing the same problem.

I'm a US non-resident (from the UK) who registered a business via Stripe Atlas, and used Earth Class Mail (a Stripe Atlas partner) to setup and incorporate my company when I signed up to Stripe Atlas.

Due to the nature of my business, a large majority of payments are micro-transactions, so I spoke with a Stripe employee who kindly enabled micro-transaction pricing on my account.

Fast-forward to a few months ago, and I decide to offer a subscription service for my business at a higher price point. I was advised by a Stripe employee to set up a new Stripe account for these higher priced transactions as micro-transaction pricing wouldn't make sense, so I registered a new US Stripe account using the exact same business details as my Stripe Atlas account (using my Earth Class Mail address, EIN, etc.)

My original US Stripe Atlas account seems to have passed this new US verification fine - whereas my new US Stripe account is threatened to have payouts/payments disabled on March 12th unless I provide a physical US address, as it doesn't like the Earth Class Mail one.

I have contacted Stripe customer support who have not been helpful - if there's anyone at Stripe who can help me with this I would hugely, hugely appreciate some help.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#87

Post by anticorporate »

Arainach wrote: post #84
anticorporate wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A business with no physical location is not practical in society. That's an opinion, and my point is that I do not hold that opinion. It's only not practical because we make it impractical, not because any benefit is gained by forcing people to jump through hoops to set up and pay for virtual addresses.

The ability to compel someone to appear and answer for crimes committee by a business is a huge benefit. So is ensuring local businesses aren't undercut by businesses who claim no jurisdiction.

But that doesn't require an address. My filing with the Secretary of State in the state where I incorporate could just include a selection of which jurisdiction's laws I operate under. That's effectively what it is already, since I can choose where to have my virtual address. This would just cut out the gouging for a virtual address.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#88

Post by jjav »

Arainach wrote: post #80
anticorporate wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the point. I don't operate a business from my home. I operate a business from my truck and from client sites. There literally is not a business at my home.

All businesses have a home. They must comply with a set of laws (yes, including business permits) and be able to respond to disputes. A business with no physical location is not practical in society.

> All businesses have a home.

There is a vast difference between a disgruntled violent person showing up at the address of SmallGuy LLC (which happens to be their home) and the same type of person showing up at the street address of, say, Apple who has thousands-strong security force.

> A business with no physical location is not practical in society.

This comment on HN of all places is clearly incorrect, since most web businesses don't exist in any physical location.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#89

Post by jjav »

ghaff wrote: post #34
NewJazz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I never do business in my home, but instead operate out of libraries, coffee shops, or client's locations? Picture a carpet cleaning van parked on the street, for example.

When I bought my house many many years ago, I think I got something in the sale agreement about being able to operate a business out of my house provided it was just a mail-order business without associated traffic. (The seller was continuing to live next door.) So I'm not sure about zoning in most places--especially today--but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some restrictions on business-related commercial tra…

> I think I got something in the sale agreement about being able to operate a business out of my house

I don't understand this. Whatever requirements (if any) that apply to your home business are going to be set by the city/county (and those can change over the years). Your home purchase agreement doesn't have any jurisdiction over that.

Re: Updates to US verification requirements

#90

Post by jjav »

Aurornis wrote: post #52
anticorporate wrote: post #17

I understand there are some larger compliance-related issues that need to be solved and that this seems like it's an unintended consequence of the regulatory requirements put in place to solve this. But there are huge consequences for small business owners in requiring a physical address. I don't need or want anyone to ever physically appear at an address I provide, because providing _any_ address for my business is…

> I don't need or want anyone to ever physically appear at an address I provide, Is Stripe revealing this address to customers? This page only says a business address must be provided, not that it will be revealed to customers. If you have a business, you already have a business address and you're paying taxes somewhere. Why can't you use that address? > Suddenly if my business exists at my home address, my city want…

> Is Stripe revealing this address to customers?

One needs to assume that policies can always change. I don't know if they are revealing the addresses today, but once they have them, they may well start revealing them next month.

Or they may have a data breach that just leaks everything.

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