European solo-founder. Stripe Atlas or Estonia?
Hi
I'll be looking to register a company for my solo-founder SaaS project and I'm curious how people, especially other europeans, go about setting up and managing their remote companies from a legal perspective.
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Hello ! I live in Madrid but I registered my company in Estonia. All the process is easy to follow, you will have to register yourself as e-citizen and wait to receive your ID card, you will need to pick it up in an Estonian Embassy. Later on I used Leapin to register the company (these guys are the best) and Transferwise Borderless for the bank account. I am using my company for charging with Stripe and also for publishing my apps in the App Store and I didn't have any problems so far. I heard ppl complaining about issues using TW Borderless for Stripe but afaict it works for me.
Sorry about all the questions, but I've done some research and as far as I can tell, estonia companies can't accept Stripe payments. Would love to hear how you managed to do it.
There is a lot of confusion around it, no worries, glad to help. TW Borderless is a business bank account and you will need to register your company first in Estonia as a requirement to open such account. My TW Borderless account uses a deutsch IBAN, I just opened my account in Stripe and used this IBAN to setup the Stripe payouts. I checked that i am receiving bank transfers in euros from Stripe UK Ltd so I guess they opened an european branch to manage these sort of transfers. Btw I saw a confirmation that everything is in place in Twitter: https://twitter.com/transferwise/status/942687372982083586?lang=en
Very interesting, thanks. Was it just luck that you got a transferwise account with a german IBAN or can it be specifically selected to get such an account?
Transferwise do tell me that Stripe can sometimes have hiccups* if it uses direct debit, and issues can occur in those cases. Any idea what that's about?
The german IBAN was automatically assigned so yes, i didn't choose it. I think it will depend of which currency you choose for your TW Borderless account: https://transferwise.com/help/17/borderless-account/2962702/how-can-i-use-my-local-account-details
About the hiccups, sorry but i am not sure what is this about. I have to say that my experience with Stripe and TW is short because my first business using them wasn't successful enough (www.planplex.com), just a few paying users, anyway i didn't have any issues with Stripe + TW. Please share if you find out what this hiccups are about.
It also looks like Transferwise doesn't support stripe transactions, and the LHV bank provided by LeapIn doesn't support USD transactions.. does that mean you have to charge your customers in USD?
The TransferWise borderless accounts DO accept Stripe payouts (the TW website is not entirely correct). There are three main stipulations: 1) the account needs to have local bank details 2) the name on the account must match your Stripe business name; 3) since TW accounts are not debitable, you need to keep a balance in your Stripe account to account for refunds and chargebacks, and pay out manually.
We have several users at ChargeKeep who have connected their Stripe accounts to TW.
Is that under your control? How do you make sure of this?
It's not under your control and will depend on which country your TW account is in. However, you can see which accounts do and don't in the TW dashboard b/c they're clearly divided into those two groups: https://cl.ly/585b24e9f3cd.
I see. So if I'm incorporated as a U.S company, but I'm myself not american, and I got a USD business account on TW (for the corporation), any ideas if that would be a local account or non-local? Thanks.
Nope. You'll just have to set up one and find out...
LeapIn does not provide a bank account, that is something you have to open by yourself first, if you want to open a LHV account, you will need to go to Estonia because they require you to open the account in person. That's why I went with Transferwise Borderless.
hey, quick question. If you use Estonia / E-Citizen, does that provide you with a bank account as well which you can use with Stripe?
The Estonian setup is not much of a benefit for us EU citizens. Ireland, UK, Romania, Cyprus are also options. We are also fortunate enough to have rather sophisticated banking and financial services.
At the end of the day, many EU countries offer easy incorporation, so i don't know if Estonia is such an advantage if your company is totally remote anyway. Ireland, cyprus, malta, bulgaria offer the best tax rates too. I didn't know you could use stripe atlas as a european, but i guess it makes sense only if you plan to expand or get investment from inside US.
I would say, shop around for available countries, it's a big world and having a remote company means you can definitely play the field.
We are attempting to create a knowledge database for countries, with reviews and features specifically about incorporating, and we 'd be interested to hear from anyone who wants to contribute here: https://projectilo.com/rankings/
Hey! I am from Estonia and I can tell you it takes about an hour to set up a company and it can be done all via internet. That said I dont know how easy or hard is it to set it up as a foreigner. I am happy to help if you have any specific questions and I also speak estonian.
i know a few companies from Ukraine that get incorporated at Estonia and pretty happy with it. easy for withdrawing and taxes
Yup. For many non-EU European techies (from Ukraine, Serbia, etc.) it's literally godsend.
Hi, I just wonder, if I get an address and phone number from those countries like the USA, can I get stripe confirmed with my Estonian company?
I'm considering Estonia. I'm from Ukraine and it's not possible to get investments from US VC.
That's something I'd like to know more about, as well.