
Ask HN: Has anyone here successfully applied to Stripe Atlas? - anacleto
I&#x27;ve been thinking to apply - but I was wondering if anyone here at HN has any experience with Stripe Atlas so far?<p>How long the acceptance phase during does it last?
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noodles23
March 5th - We signed up to the waitlist the instant we heard about it

April 8th - Received an invite. They gave up a form to fill out online where
we had to upload some IDs and other details.

April 10th - The docusign (digital signature) email documents came along with
a legal/tax guide. We filled that out on Apr 19th.

We ended up delaying for a while discussing the tax implications since we're
moving from a low tax (Hong Kong) to much higher tax (Delaware C-Corp) area.
Unlike Hong Kong, taxes in the US appear much much more complicated and
intimidating. Ultimately for our startup, we weighed the benefits and decided
to go ahead.

May 16th - Decided to go ahead with the incorporation and signed all the forms
(via docusign)

May 17th - Get 15k AWS credits emails (super cool)

May 19th - Our Stripe payments account was opened "You can now accept payments
via Stripe" Email

May 19th - "Welcome to SVB Bank" email with login details

May 25th - "Your Company is now incorporated" w Certificate of Incorp attached

June 4th - "Your Company now has an EIN", which a number ID to file taxes

June 21st - SVB Bank asked us to print out a few docs to sign. Basically to
confirm we received the EIN.

And that's it. In most cases, it only takes a few days once you've signed the
forms to be able to start taking payments via Stripe US (so you get the
cheaper Stripe US fees rather than the more expensive international fees).

As an international, we ended taking a while to decide if a US incorporation
was the way to go. There's 2 reasons we hesitated:

1) Stripe released a beta in Asia where you can accept payments in many Asian
countries. No more Braintree/Paypal crap so you don't need to have US bank
account to use Stripe and the Stripe API.

2) American taxes are pretty high (compared to HK), and there seems to a lot
more rules and paperwork required.

For us, what pushed us to go ahead despite our reservations was that we spent
1 week in SF (for our YC interview). We didn't get in, but we scheduled a lot
of meetings while we were there and we realised if we were to raise any sort
of significant funding, a Delaware C-corp is a prerequisite.

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charlesdm
So, the only reason why you incorporated in the US is because it is required
from a funding PoV, right? Aside from that, I can't really see any reason why
you would want to run things through a high tax US entity, in comparison to
the sweet deal you're getting in HK (tax wise).

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noodles23
100% agree.

It's a tradeoff. If I had a lifestyle trading business, the corporate tax rate
in HK is 0% (17% for revenue derived in HK, 0% for non-local revenue).

On the other hand, funding in this part of the world is pretty depressing. I
have a collection of term sheets we keep to remind ourselves how bad it
could've been. Personal liability, right to veto future investments, majority
board control... you name it.

So we're trading higher taxes + crazy amounts of compliance, for a more
managed and predictable funding process in the long run.

~~~
charlesdm
Good luck! Makes sense, given startups don't pay corporate taxes anyway

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ryanol
I applied in August and was accepted in about 2/3 weeks. They were in beta at
this time and were very helpful throughout the entire process. All I had to do
is enter information onto the forms they provide and they do all the work
behind the scenes. Personally, I'd recommend Atlas to foreign startups looking
to incorporate in the US, rather than US based startups looking to
incorporate. They only offered C-Corp at the time of my acceptance.

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pradipmj
Yes , we received an invite couple of weeks back. Once you fill in all
required information , it takes a about 7 to 10 days to complete the process
and you'll also get 15000 $ worth of AWS credits

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bastawhiz
I have. It took about six months before I heard back after initially signing
up. After that, it took about three weeks to get through the paperwork, and
then about a month of waiting for the government and various third parties (SV
Bank, Amazon) to get their pieces together.

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soneca
A brazilian startup of some friends got accepted (with no warm intros or
fancier credentials, just "cold" application). They applied as soon it came,
got an invitation in July i think. Now, as far as i know, the process is on
hold as the startup is still figuring out some bureaucracy on their side.

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CCing
Can someone explain how the double-taxation works ? I mean, if you have your
business in america, but then you work from your home country, how you manage
it ? It's really hard found some informations about it...

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tim333
I think that stuff varies a fair bit on the specifics of which home country
and where the company is. In general you fill in the tax returns in both
countries and they work out something you owe. At least for C-Corps. I've got
a Delaware LLC and live in the UK and that one's simple - there's no US tax
and the company is ignored and it's earnings considered yours for UK tax.

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pentesterlab
Got in during the beta. Incorporated in less than 2 weeks. The process was
quick and straightforward. I started the paperwork to get a debit card from
SVB 3 weeks ago and I should receive it in few days.

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Skrint
Could you share a little more details about the debit card process? How was
the paperwork, how do they ship the card (courier company or regular
international mail), do they ship anywhere in the world, the fees to receive
the card (cost of the card + shipping) how do you request the card, can it be
used internationally without limitation (it would make sense since this
solution is for international customers, but US banks tend to be very strict
regarding sending wires or withdrawing money from ATM outside of the US), what
are the daily/monthly ATM withdrawal limits, and any other useful information.
Thank you

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kl_r
Got in at the initial beta. Super smooth, took us about a month from getting
approved to having everything sorted out (bank account, AWS credits etc).

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MOARDONGZPLZ
US based looking for incorporation, rejected after a couple weeks.

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GordonS
Can you say why you were rejected?

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guywithabike
Their HN username gives you a hint as to why.

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facetube
No it doesn't.

~~~
joemi
I'd be very willing to bet that the same qualities that drive someone to use a
crude username may cause that person to be less desirable in several aspects
of professional life.

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partisan
It's sad that this has to be spelled out.

