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Ask HN: How do you handle VAT / Sales Tax accounting as B2C SaaS?

97 points throw_1VJ51pMb | 1 comments | 08 Mar 25 08:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.21s | source

Hey! I run a B2C SaaS and I use Stripe for all of my sales (subscriptions).

I am looking to learn how others handle their VAT / Sales Tax filing.

I know that the standard answer would be to use Paddle / LemonSqueezy / Polar.sh, but I already have a lot of subscribers on Stripe which makes quick migration non-trivial.

I am especially looking for some reliable accounting companies / accountants that can register and file Sales Tax across US, UK, Canada, Australia, etc. (It does not have to be a global solution).

It's my understanding that solutions like Stripe Tax, Alavara, Quaderno, etc. only help collect the necessary data (which I consider the easier part, at least for digital goods), but do not handle the registration & filing (though I've learned that Quaderno will support filing Sales Tax in the US on your behalf soon).

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Some jurisdictions are relatively easy to handle (for example, one can handle whole EU by uploading a simple CSV [1] once a quarter and the CSV is easy to generate from Stripe's records).

But unfortunately there are tons of others that are much more complicated and scattered -- for example, due to the economic nexus laws in the US, I now have to file Sales Tax in each individual state where I am over the threshold (and many states have thresholds in low hundreds of transactions, so it's not hard to reach).

[1]: https://www.elster.de/bportal/helpGlobal?themaGlobal=osseust_import

[2]: If you do not feel comfortable commenting here, you can also reach out at z2qmk@pekoi.com (temporary email)

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bfstein ◴[11 Mar 25 23:12 UTC] No.43338122[source]▶
We use Sphere ( https://www.getsphere.com ), and it’s the only good solution I know of for international VAT that handles everything end-to-end (registration, calculation, filing, and remittance).

We use Stripe Billing, and we actually use Anrok for US sales tax compliance. They’re solid domestically, but they don’t do international registration, filing, and remittance; they only do calculation.

There are also firms like VAT IT (vatcompliance.com) that can do this if you want to work with a more traditional service provider.

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LadyCailin ◴[11 Mar 25 23:52 UTC] No.43338447[source]▶
Hey, just curious, since you actually might know about this. My country (Norway) has extremely strict import rules. All items must have the VAT paid on them, and if they don’t, you have to pay the VAT plus an administrative fee in order to pick up the item. However, there have been plenty of times where I paid VAT to the store, but then I still get charged VAT upon pick up. According to the postal service, this is because “the company didn’t register their VOEC number electronically for the shipment” and then they tell me to get the company to refund the VAT, and I guess go fuck myself for the administration fee.

Leaving aside the utter garbage that is the Norwegian postal system, do you know what that means? Is that something that just happens as a matter of course when using Sphere? Is that a common feature among platforms that offer the service? I have no clue how unique Norway is or isn’t in this regard, but I imagine countries in general want to collect VAT for imports.

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1. magicalhippo ◴[12 Mar 25 00:40 UTC] No.43338765[source]▶
This isn't really related, as I understand it.

The Norwegian VOEC system[1] is modeled on the EU IOSS system[2].

As with normal import declarations, missing documentation means you cannot claim any exceptions etc. Thus if the store forgot to register the VOEC number when they shipped the item, the one filing the declaration, say the postal service, has to assume VAT hasn't been paid.

Now, if this had been a normal customs declaration, one could simply submit a corrected declaration with the correct documentation later. However, since such low-value goods aren't declared using a normal customs declaration, one cannot do this.

They also don't want spend their resources cleaning up someone else's mess, thus they leave it up to the shop that made the error to fix the problem by reimbursing you the VAT they collected.

And yes, as a customer this sucks, as the shop often will just shrug and claim they don't know or they did the right thing.

[1]: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/person/duties/purchases-from-...

[2]: https://vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu/index_en