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I'm trying to figure out how people are able to earn side-income from their hobbies so commonly on this website. If I do what you suggest, a quick google shows

I'm trying to figure out how people are able to earn side-income from their hobbies so commonly on this website. If I do what you suggest, a quick google shows $2,000-$5,000 per year per country for foreign tax accounting to handle things like VAT. While I agree with your points about accounting, there's also no way this is standard practice for people earning less than $100 selling software and services online to a global audience.

DarrenDev 3y ago
You need to use a reseller type company like Fastspring. There's no alternative - you either do the tax yourself or you make it so that you don't have to. It's an extra 5% or so, but well worth it to avoid all the work and hassle of learning about and then paying sales tax in every country and region. If you ever move beyond the "beer money" phase, you should be able to afford the experience required to do all this correctly using Stripe.
brtkdotse 3y ago
This has been my main gripe with the “indie hacker” flavour of entrepreneur-porn. If you’re doing international sales and not trusting a MoR service you’re 100% committing tax fraud in multiple jurisdictions.
- jimkleiber 3y ago
  I hope one day we start governing the internet like a global commons, where we have global laws that apply to global interactions here. Because if I post something for sale on the web, it is almost global/international sales by default. As I see it now, I have to intentionally (and sometimes through a lot of hurdles) restrict people from buying it from some countries. And then what if they use a VPN? Or I use an MoR who keeps up with all of these tax laws just because our governance is based on geographical when the internet blurs away geographical borders. MoR just seems like a workaround for not having global governance of a global space, but maybe that's the best way for now.
brudgers 3y ago
A person wants to do business on the cheap. Now they have two problems. All the time you have spent in this thread, could have been spent figuring out how to make enough money to make the problem go away. Money solves all business problems. My advice: Segment the market to avoid problems you can't afford. Because avoiding problems is the easiest way to solve problems. If you can't afford to solve the VAT problem, avoid it.
- mytailorisrich 3y ago
  Good points. I think, though that in this case @seabass may have suffered from information overload by subscribing to too many Stripe services. IMHO he got this notification about UAE tax and somewhat panicked. Frankly, the best thing to do was to be grateful for this customer and to move on instead of shooting himself in the foot by rushing to manually register for tax in a country he knows nothing about over a $5 sale. He didn't really have a problem, IMHO.
  - brudgers 3y ago
    Serving customers who are not worth serving is a mistake. For most businesses that’s most people. The mistake is only charging $5. If it were $5000, the overhead of accountants fees, would be covered. At $50k, the fine would turnout fine.
    - mytailorisrich 3y ago
      My point is that it is over the top to say that the customer in this case, and many others, is not worth serving. The mistake here is panicking over nothing, though it seems a bit too late now...
      - brudgers 3y ago
        Apple segments the market to avoid people who aren’t worth serving. Ferrari too of course. It’s a thing successful companies do. Think of all the Japanese electronics sold only in Japan.

DarrenDev 3y ago

You need to use a reseller type company like Fastspring. There's no alternative - you either do the tax yourself or you make it so that you don't have to. It's an extra 5% or so, but well worth it to avoid all the work and hassle of learning about and then paying sales tax in every country and region. If you ever move beyond the "beer money" phase, you should be able to afford the experience required to do all this correctly using Stripe.

brtkdotse 3y ago

This has been my main gripe with the “indie hacker” flavour of entrepreneur-porn. If you’re doing international sales and not trusting a MoR service you’re 100% committing tax fraud in multiple jurisdictions.

jimkleiber 3y ago
I hope one day we start governing the internet like a global commons, where we have global laws that apply to global interactions here. Because if I post something for sale on the web, it is almost global/international sales by default. As I see it now, I have to intentionally (and sometimes through a lot of hurdles) restrict people from buying it from some countries. And then what if they use a VPN? Or I use an MoR who keeps up with all of these tax laws just because our governance is based on geographical when the internet blurs away geographical borders. MoR just seems like a workaround for not having global governance of a global space, but maybe that's the best way for now.

brudgers 3y ago

A person wants to do business on the cheap. Now they have two problems. All the time you have spent in this thread, could have been spent figuring out how to make enough money to make the problem go away. Money solves all business problems. My advice: Segment the market to avoid problems you can't afford. Because avoiding problems is the easiest way to solve problems. If you can't afford to solve the VAT problem, avoid it.

mytailorisrich 3y ago
Good points. I think, though that in this case @seabass may have suffered from information overload by subscribing to too many Stripe services. IMHO he got this notification about UAE tax and somewhat panicked. Frankly, the best thing to do was to be grateful for this customer and to move on instead of shooting himself in the foot by rushing to manually register for tax in a country he knows nothing about over a $5 sale. He didn't really have a problem, IMHO.
- brudgers 3y ago
  Serving customers who are not worth serving is a mistake. For most businesses that’s most people. The mistake is only charging $5. If it were $5000, the overhead of accountants fees, would be covered. At $50k, the fine would turnout fine.
  - mytailorisrich 3y ago
    My point is that it is over the top to say that the customer in this case, and many others, is not worth serving. The mistake here is panicking over nothing, though it seems a bit too late now...
    - brudgers 3y ago
      Apple segments the market to avoid people who aren’t worth serving. Ferrari too of course. It’s a thing successful companies do. Think of all the Japanese electronics sold only in Japan.