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by kmoriarty 1998 days ago
Hope you don't mind me commenting, but I'm Kelly a product manager at Stripe. You are spot on about Stripe missing tax compliance support but we've got a few things in the works to change that, especially for SaaS businesses. Happy to share more what we're working on if you're interested -- kmoriarty@stripe.com.

On the payment method side of things, I'm curious what methods are being requested by buyers that we are missing? We do allow users to accept checks and bank transfers, so just wondering if there is a specific method we're missing (aside from PayPal)? All in all, just want to understand exactly what you are looking for in terms of that last mile support from Stripe!

Checks: https://stripe.com/docs/billing/invoices/paper-check-payment Payment Method Overview (incl. Bank Transfers): https://stripe.com/docs/payments/payment-methods/overview

1 comments

Thanks for your thoughtful reply!

> We do allow users to accept checks and bank transfers

Some users can use the check service, but it appears very limited. I've been waiting on the invite list for 1-2 years. In that time I've set up my own workflow for handling checks, but it'll be nice when Stripe can roll that out for everyone, like US bank transfers, which work very well.

But outside the US, bank transfers get complicated, partially because billing & invoicing in multiple currencies is insanely complicated.

Example: we sell our product in dollars (US). Our customer is in Europe (Anywhere in Europe). They don't want to pay using US bank protocols, and even if they do, the fee is $20 per transaction. Stripe technically supports many European bank transfer scenarios, but only if you duplicate your product SKUs and convert them into multiple currencies. Now you have to maintain conversion rates manually across these SKUs as they diverge over time, and SEPA is really, really painful to set up for relatively low volumes in Europe.

Then, you have to learn loads about EU tax compliance, and have a bunch of extra conversations with customers about this. Submit documents back and forth. Revise invoices, and re-create subscriptions manually when invoices need to be tweaked.

For the US, Stripe has been wonderful. But for the last mile, having something like Paddle or Gumroad act as a merchant of record (which is probably outside the scope of what Stripe wants to do in 2021), is the best option for B2B SaaS founders that want to sell globally.

I work on Checks at Stripe. I'm sorry we've kept you waiting for so long. Our initial rollout has been primarily targeted toward users most likely to have a high volume of checks usage based on the number and value of invoices issued.

We are now in a better position to accommodate additional users. Feel free to send me your account ID or primary account email, and I can enable the functionality for your account: clintonb@stripe.com.