Billing from Spain
Dear IH community,
I'm trying to figure out how to establish a minimal structure in order to test indie / side projects from Spain.
The idea is to start with an Stripe account but I don't know exactly what is the best setup to charge the customers from Spain.
Basically we have two configurations / possibilities from Spain:
- Establish a company and get the company ID in order to emit invoices
- Emit invoices with the National Identification Number, but this is limited by a total maximum amount of invoices per year
Note: My main goal initially is to target the US market. Not Europe due to the VAT MOSS nightmare.
Any thoughts / insights on that? (assuming the use of Stripe).
Thanks in advance.
Best regards.
At FeedbackPanda, we operated from Germany, targeting the US market as well. Before we made our first Euro, I had founded a German UG, which is a form of Limited. I wanted to make sure that there was zero liability with me. That's why I didn't go for the NIN option. Too much risk in selling something like a SaaS as a private entity.
I also wanted to make sure that the company had its own bank account. That made dealing with the whole tax situation much easier, as all transactions could be itemized and dealt with much easier.
Honestly, MOSS is the worst, but you only really need to get it figured out with your tax advisor before you start issuing invoices. I understand that there are also Stripe plugins that can deal with EU taxes and reporting - but I have not used those.
Thanks for your response!
Here in Spain there is the concept of "Sociedad Limitada", which is the same as (or sort of) the "limited co.".
Currently, I have the company established but with a status of "inactive". Here (in Spain) when you want to start the activity (this is, to start charging or to emit invoices) you need to pay a monthly tax (named "autonomos" here) that is a monthly amount you pay even if you have zero income (!!!). It is completely unfair but seems the only way to operate from Spain using a limited company.
Do you have something similar in Germany?
And, for the bank account, where did you open it? I have seen Revolut and maybe I open one business account. I have seen also Stripe Atlas in order to establish an US company, but seems more expensive and I leave this behind by now.
IAfter you really need/ want to issue proper invoices I suggest you open up your business in the US using Stripe Atlas or firstbase.io. Any European setup incl Spain is just too discouraging due to paperwork and taxes. And Stripe will always work better with an US bank account. Those 400$ spent upfront you'll save in time and taxes very soon.
In Germany, when you register a limited, they start charging you for being part of a trade association (which you can't get out of), as a percentage of your revenue. So yeah, we have an "existence tax", but it's very low when you make no money at all. Seems to be a European thing.
I opened a bank account with Commerzbank, a local big German business bank.
Here's the thing: we ran into A LOT of blocked charges for certain US customers. No matter what country your bank account is in: if it's not in the US and you are charging a US customer, some banks will flat out block the charge. Using Stripe Atlas and opening a bank account with a US bank will make this much easier. It will also mean you pay taxes in the US, so that's more complex, but it is something to think about. We built our own dunning system to help our customers reach out to their bank, so it worked out well with the European bank. Using a Spanish bank (that best operates internationally) will be fine.