In episode 658, Rob Walling speaks with Geoff Roberts, co-founder of Outseta, about global sales tax compliance for SaaS founders. Geoff wrote a 4,400 article on the topic about when SaaS founders should care about sales tax not only within their own country but globally, along with the pros and cons of various solutions. We also dive into a bit of Geoff’s own story as the cofounder of Outseta.

Topics we cover:

3:01 - Why should SaaS founders care about sales tax?
4:20 - At what revenue level does sales tax become important?
6:28 - Country-specific sales tax obligations
7:50 - The added tax complexities of running a membership platform
9:07 - What is a merchant of record?
14:28 - Why did Geoff write this 4,000-word post on sales tax compliance?
16:05 - The pros and cons of using a third-party merchant of record
17:39 - Alternative solutions where you are your own merchant of record
20:38 - How does a foreign government enforce tax requirements for an American small business?
21:48 - Mitigating sales tax risks if you take on funding or sell the company
23:34 - About Outseta
24:27 - The impact of the pandemic on Outseta
25:20 - The challenge of speaking to two very different audiences

Links from the Show:

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you.

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Christian Schmidt

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