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11 Comments

Ask about Stripe Atlas

Hi, fam! Happy coding!

I wonder any of you guys having used Stripe Atlas before, especially the one shipped together with the ProductHunt Ship program. I'm based in Vietnam, starting a search lab building micro SaaS. Unfortunately, Stripe is not supported yet in Vietnam. Stripe Atlas seems to be the way to go.

Would appreciate sharing your experience 🙏!

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    If you want to to start a company in order to get world-wide payments you can just sign up with an international payment processor. I collected a list of those specialized in software sales. https://www.starmessagesoftware.com/e-commerce-software-publishers

    On the other hand, it is good to create a company to separate your personal finances from your business' finances.
    An alternative to a US based business is an Estonia based business. Estonia has done in the recent decade remarkable steps to make the business formation easy for non EU persons.
    Have a loot at https://e-resident.gov.ee/start-a-company/

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      Oh nice, thank you @StarMessage! Estonia looks decent for founding a global company. Wonder the support and cost of bookkeeping and accounting services?

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        I have no experience with them but I see for example at incorporate.ee that they start with 65€ / month. Make sure to check if it includes all the accounting needed for the business to run for a complete fiscal year, including all the filing needed for revenue and taxes.

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    You have to separate Stripe Atlas from Stripe (payments). Stripe Atlas handles the legal aspect of starting a company, but there is no payment integration that you can get from Stripe Atlas. You still have to apply for Stripe payments after your company is built.

    From a company formation perspective, Stripe Atlas is a little expensive, but pretty damn good. It’s expensive compared to (the legal part of) creating a US company by yourself but probably cheaper than a lot of other services out there. Having said that, creating / maintaining a US company is a lot of work, more expensive, and can take a lot of taxes away. If don’t need a US company, I would consider forming your company in Vietnam.

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      Also, the ProductHunt Ship program says it comes with Stripe Atlas for $60/month, which is a good deal.

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      Thanks for your advice, mate! Yes, I need a US company (or companies in any country that Stripe supports) to set up a Stripe account for processing payment. Did think about using other services to just create a company then set up a Stripe account, but I'm afraid I'll need to handle all the paperwork. Does Stripe Atlas handle all the legal aspects?

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        Stripe Atlas only handles the setup for a Delaware LLC / or Corporation. After the setup, you have to do everything else (paying Delaware franchise, paying Federal tax, etc.). You can also pay people to do it for you, but it may not be cheap depending on your circumstances. Especially if you’re working from Vietnam, you cannot do the Federal taxes yourself because it’s very complex. Even if you don’t make a profit, you still have to file federal taxes and you still have to pay ~$500 / year in Delaware franchise tax.

        You will probably save a lot of money by paying a startup company to create a UK company for you. Unless you’re 80% sure that will want US Venture Capital funding, I would not use Stripe Atlas in your case.

        Are you building SaaS for Vietnamese users?

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          Got that! Thank you for the helpful information! I'm building SaaS targeting global users though.

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    You can use paddle.com, fastspring.com or even paypal to accept global payments. Where your company is located does not matter really.

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    How does taxing works for
    Non USA citizen? After getting Stripe Atlas, do I have to pay taxes in both US and in my home country?

    I know people have to pay tax after transferring money from registered US bank account to Home country bank account at the end of financial year. But do we also have to pay taxes in USA?

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      Most western countries have 2 general types of corporations with respect to taxation: corporation and pass-through. A corporation is treated like a person and pays tax on his income before he gives any money to his parent (you the investor). “Pass-through” are not treated like people, and instead are treated like extensions of their parents (you the investor). If you setup a corporation with Stripe Atlas, the corporation has to pay corporate income tax on profits (21%, I think). On top of that, you might have to pay taxes on dividends that the corporation pays out to the US.

      If you create a “pass-through” with Stripe Atlas, the income generated by the company is not tax with corporate taxes, but I’m less clear on whether your share of the earnings would be taxed or not. Not as familiar with that situation.

      If you live in a country without a tax treaty with the US, you will probably get hit with double taxes.

      Anyways, the point is that unless you have a special need, the easiest thing is to create a company in your home country unless you live in one of those countries where you have to pay in $1 million minimum equity, it takes 5 weeks to open, and you have to pay $10,000 / year in compliance costs. Then, maybe it makes sense to look elsewhere. And, you don’t need a US company to sell digital products to US customers. And, there is no more brutal of a tax enforcement agency than the US Internal Revenue Service. Many careers have been made in their enforcement division for putting people in prison for 20 years for seemingly minor tax crimes and chasing people who live outside the US is not a problem for them. So if you don’t know what you’re doing, you have to hire somebody who does.

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