How do you manage global sales tax for your app?
I've been looking through what I need to do to sell subscriptions for an upcoming SaaS app I'm building.
I'm pretty much on the edge of sanity trying to get my head around global taxation. It seems that most countries are switching to taxation based on the customer's location. The responsibility of collecting these taxes lies with the business rather than the customer if my understanding is correct.
Looking around it seems like Paddle is great solution as they act as a reseller and hence we don't have to worry about taxes at all. However I believe Stripe is very popular among indie hackers and that's just a payment gateway and not a merchant of record.
So my question is how do you manage sales tax for your apps?
I'm UK based and operate through a limited company so if you're UK based and can share your experiences with this that'd be a bonus!
Thanks!
Great topic, one that's looming just over the horizon for me.
As a very related question: What are the likely short-to-medium term consequences of non-compliance?
Let's say I'm based in the US, I sell my software to someone in Spain, and I haven't bothered collecting any sales tax on behalf of the customer's locale (Europe, Spain, Region... etc). Maybe I don't even know that's where they're based.
My hunch is that it's very, very unlikely for an international tax collection agency to notice until you're operating at very large scale. I wonder if folks have any experience to the contrary..?
(To be clear, I'm not actively trying to avoid/thwart compliance; but the world is a big place.)
Thanks @spikeytown, this tangential question has indeed been on my mind as well! My hunch is also the same as yours but I have no anecdotes on this topic. Hopefully someone with first-hand experience sees this and adds their thoughts!
The important thing is to know your responsibilities. SaaS is still a relatively young business model and lots of states don't have guidance on SaaS sales taxes. Here's the most up-to-date information for SaaS to ensure that your company keeps tax-compliant: https://bit.ly/3EgpiBs
Sometimes taxes can be a pain to keep up with. Thankfully for us, there are lots of services available to make this job easier for you. PayPro Global acts as a local reseller, handles everything from global payments, sales tax/VAT and 24/7 customer support, so you have the freedom to focus on your product.
For more information schedule a free consultation here: https://payproglobal.com/
I haven't used them personally, but I've heard good things about https://www.quaderno.io/
Thanks! Yeah I've heard a lot of good things about them too. They're one option I've got on my radar :)