Payment gateways for your LLC: Stripe, PayPal and DoDo compared

2.9% + 0.30 USD per transaction is the Stripe baseline, but PayPal, DoDo Payments and Adyen have their own fees, requirements and quirks. We compare options by business model and volume.

Stripe US charges 2.9% + 0.30 dollar per domestic transaction, PayPal Business hovers around 3.49%, and Dodo Payments drops to 2.4% above 50,000 dollars processed monthly with a US LLC.

Having the right payment gateways connected to your LLC makes the difference between smooth cash flow and constant friction. Here's a complete comparison of your options.

Stripe US: the developer's choice

Stripe is the gold standard for online payment processing. With a US LLC:

What you can do:

Accept credit and debit cards from 195+ countries
Process payments in 135+ currencies (auto-converted to USD)
Set up recurring subscriptions with Stripe Billing
Create payment links (no code required)
Build custom checkout flows via API
Use Stripe Connect for marketplace payments

Fees: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge. International cards add 1.5%. Currency conversion adds 1%.

Best for: Freelancers, agencies, SaaS businesses, e-commerce, anyone who accepts card payments.

Setup requirements: LLC documents (Articles of Organization), EIN, Mercury bank account, business description, website or online presence.

PayPal Business US: the consumer-friendly option

PayPal is everywhere. With a US PayPal Business account:

Important: PayPal Business requires the owner's ITIN for personal identity verification, in addition to the LLC's EIN. Getting an ITIN requires filing Form W-7 with the IRS.

What you can do:

Accept PayPal payments from 200+ countries
Accept credit cards without a PayPal account (via PayPal's card processing)
Send and receive invoices
Access PayPal Credit and Working Capital financing

Fees: Variable by transaction type. Standard: 3.49% + $0.49 for PayPal checkout, 2.99% + $0.49 for card processing.

Best for: When your clients prefer PayPal, B2C transactions, marketplaces, consumer-facing businesses.

DoDo Payments: the global compliance solution

DoDo is a Merchant of Record (MoR) service specifically designed for digital products and SaaS businesses.

What makes it different:

Acts as the seller of record. DoDo is legally the entity selling to the end customer
Handles global VAT, sales tax, and GST automatically in 100+ countries
You don't need to register for tax compliance in dozens of jurisdictions
Accepts payment methods from every major market (cards, wallets, bank transfers)
Handles invoicing, refunds, and tax remittance
Compliance burden shifts from your LLC to DoDo

Fees: Typically 5% + payment processing fees. Higher than Stripe alone, but includes complete tax compliance.

Best for: SaaS businesses, digital product sellers, course creators who sell globally to consumers (B2C).

Relay Payment Links (powered by Adyen)

If you use Relay as your backup banking, you get access to payment links powered by Adyen: one of the world's largest payment processors:

Create professional payment links to send to clients
Clients can pay by card instantly
Funds deposit directly to your Relay account
Simple, no-code solution for quick invoicing
Great for one-off project payments

Comparing the options

Our recommendation

For most service businesses: Stripe as primary, PayPal as alternative for clients who prefer it.

For SaaS with global customers: Stripe + DoDo (Stripe for B2B, DoDo for B2C with automatic VAT compliance).

For B2C digital products: DoDo Payments provides automatic compliance and eliminates worry about tax registration worldwide.

For quick client payments: Relay payment links for simple, professional invoicing.

Connect all payment processors to your Mercury account for unified cash management.

Payment platform comparison: the complete matrix

Setting up your complete payment stack

For B2B services (advisory, dev, design):

Primary: Mercury wire details (share routing + account number). $0 fees
Backup: Stripe payment links (for clients who prefer cards)
International: Wise multi-currency account (for EUR/GBP-paying clients)

For B2C digital products (courses, SaaS, downloads):

Primary: DoDo Payments (handles VAT/GST globally as MoR)
Backup: Stripe (if you want more control and handle VAT yourself)
Subscriptions: Stripe Billing (best recurring payment infrastructure)

For marketplaces and platforms:

Primary: Stripe Connect (marketplace payments)
International: PayPal (if platform requires it. need ITIN)
Payouts: Mercury for all deposits

How to read the LLC payment-gateway choice as a stable mapping between activity, country of customer and reconciliation flow

The LLC payment-gateway choice reads more usefully when it's treated as a stable mapping between the type of activity, the country of the customer and the reconciliation flow with the LLC's bank account, rather than as a feature-by-feature comparison. What changes from one provider to another is mostly the integration surface and the supported markets — and those properties don't shift week to week.

A short note in the LLC folder that records which gateway is used for which type of customer, and how the settlement reaches the LLC's bank account, turns this mapping into something the member can review at any time.

Before going further, put numbers on your case: the Exentax calculator compares, in under 2 minutes, your current tax bill with what you would carry running a US LLC properly declared in your country of residence.

> Free consultation, no strings attached

To keep going on this thread, Privacy with a US LLC: what is truly private and what is not fills in a nuance this guide only touched on.

Conclusion and next steps

_More on this topic: Mercury account guide, currency exchange guide._

Next steps

If you want to validate whether this strategy fits your specific situation, at Exentax we review your case personally and propose the legal and efficient structure that truly suits you. Book an initial no-commitment session from our contact page.

Banking and tax facts worth clarifying

Fintech and CRS information evolves; here is the current state:

Notes by provider

Mercury operates with several federally chartered partner banks and FDIC coverage via sweep network: mainly Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, with Column N.A. still in some legacy accounts. Mercury is not itself a bank; it is a fintech platform backed by those partner banks. If Mercury closes an account, the balance is typically returned by paper check mailed to the account holder's registered address, which can be a serious operational problem for non-residents; keep a secondary account (Relay, Wise Business, etc.) as contingency.
Wise ships two clearly different products: Wise Personal and Wise Business. For an LLC you must open Wise Business, not the personal account. Important CRS nuance: a Wise Business held by a US LLC sits outside CRS because the account holder is a US entity and the US is not a CRS participant; the USD side operates via Wise US Inc. (FATCA perimeter, not CRS). In contrast, a Wise Personal opened by an individual tax-resident in Spain or another CRS jurisdiction does trigger CRS reporting via Wise Europe SA (Belgium) on that individual. Opening Wise for your LLC does not bring you into CRS through the LLC; a separate Wise Personal in your own name as a CRS-resident individual does report.
Wallester (Estonia) is a European financial entity with an EMI/issuing-bank licence. Its European IBAN accounts are within the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and therefore trigger automatic reporting to the tax administration of the holder's country of residence.
Payoneer operates through European entities (Payoneer Europe Ltd, Ireland) that are also in scope for CRS for clients resident in participating jurisdictions.
Revolut Business: when paired with a US LLC, it operates under Revolut Technologies Inc. with Lead Bank as its US banking partner. The account delivered is a US account (routing + account number); no European IBAN is issued to a US LLC. The European IBANs (Lithuanian, Belgian) belong to Revolut Bank UAB and are issued to European clients of the group. If you are offered a European IBAN tied to your LLC, confirm exactly which legal entity holds that account and which regime it reports under.
Zero tax: no LLC structure delivers "zero tax" if you live in a country with CFC/tax transparency or income attribution rules. What you achieve is no double taxation and correct reporting at residence, not elimination.

References: sources and banking regulation

What follows is the operational view, not the textbook one. We have run this play enough times to know which variables collapse first under scrutiny from a tax authority or a banking compliance team, and that is the order we tackle them in.

Payment gateways for your LLC: Stripe, PayPal, Dodo and when to use each

The gateway defines your collection availability, your cost per transaction and, above all, your risk of fund freeze. For a non-resident LLC with global clients no gateway is optimal in every scenario: the right thing is to combine Stripe + PayPal + an alternative (Dodo, Lemon Squeezy or Paddle) by product, market and volume.

Stripe (US, via LLC + EIN). The standard for SaaS, subscriptions and professional e-commerce. Standard fee 2.9% + $0.30 for US domestic, +1% international, +1% currency conversion. Approves non-resident LLCs with EIN + US bank (Mercury, Wise) + operational website + clear product description. Main risk: freeze due to chargebacks or activity profiled as high risk (coaching, infoproducts, crypto, adult).
PayPal Business (US). Essential for B2C in LATAM and Europe where customers "demand" PayPal for trust. Higher fee (~3.49% + fixed) and worse subscription experience. Risk of 21-day hold on new accounts and rolling reserves. Useful as second method, not only.
Dodo Payments / Lemon Squeezy / Paddle (Merchant of Record). The MoR handles VAT and tax compliance for digital sales in EU/UK/AU; you sell to them, they sell to the end customer. Fee 5%-8% but removes OSS, MOSS, UK VAT, AU GST and country-by-country reporting. Ideal for SaaS and digital products across many jurisdictions.
Recommended stack by model. Global B2B SaaS: Stripe + Paddle. EU B2C infoproducts: Lemon Squeezy or Dodo (MoR covers digital VAT). Advisory services: Stripe + Wise/transfer + optional PayPal. US physical e-commerce: Stripe + Shop Pay. NEVER rely on a single gateway: a freeze without alternative is operational risk #1.

What we are asked the most

Does Stripe close my account for being non-resident LLC? Not by default. Closes due to vague descriptions, high chargeback rate (>1%), restricted-list products or discrepancies between site and actual activity. Clean setup + correct onboarding = low probability.

Does Dodo or Lemon Squeezy free me from EU digital VAT? Yes, as Merchant of Record. You invoice Dodo/LS (B2B, no VAT with W-8BEN-E), they invoice the end customer with the correct country VAT.

At Exentax we model which stack suits you by margin, market and product and open Stripe + Mercury + MoR alternative - so a freeze never stops you.

We set it up without you losing a weekend

Our position here is deliberate and conservative: we optimise for what survives an inspection, not for the most aggressive headline number. The points below are the ones we are willing to defend in writing. And if a notice does land, at Exentax we keep the dossier ready so you reply in hours, not weeks.

Advantages

The numbers and the calendar matter - get either wrong and the rest unravels.

Fees

Most of the avoidable damage we see in this exact point comes from skipping the documentation step, not from the underlying tax logic.

Ideal for

If it is not clean here, every downstream assumption becomes negotiable in front of the authority.

Advantages

The numbers and the calendar matter - get either wrong and the rest unravels.

Fees

Most of the avoidable damage we see in this exact point comes from skipping the documentation step, not from the underlying tax logic.

Ideal for

If it is not clean here, every downstream assumption becomes negotiable in front of the authority.

Advantages

The numbers and the calendar matter - get either wrong and the rest unravels.

Stripe

On the same topic

What if HMRC, the IRS or my local tax authority asks about my LLC?

It's the question every client raises in the first consultation, and the short answer is: your LLC isn't opaque, and a properly declared structure closes any inquiry in standard forms. Your tax authority can request the state Certificate of Formation (Wyoming, Delaware or New Mexico), the EIN issued by the IRS, the signed Operating Agreement, the Mercury or Wise statements for the year, the Form 5472 plus pro-forma 1120 you filed, and the bookkeeping that reconciles income, expenses and movements. If all of that exists and is delivered in order, the inquiry doesn't escalate.

What tax authorities do pursue, and rightly, is sham ownership (nominees, paper residency) and undeclared foreign accounts. A well-structured LLC is the opposite: you appear as beneficial owner in the BOI Report when applicable (verifiable at fincen.gov/boi), you sign the bank accounts and you declare the income where you actually live. The structure is registered with the state Secretary of State, with the IRS and, when European banks are involved, inside the CRS perimeter of the OECD standard.

The mistake that really sinks an inquiry isn't having an LLC; it's not attributing the income correctly in your domestic return, not declaring foreign accounts when the year-end balance exceeds the local threshold (€50,000 in Spain via Modelo 720; the equivalent FBAR / Form 8938 in the US for residents; T1135 in Canada), and not documenting related-party transactions between the member and the LLC. Those three fronts are worth closing before any request arrives, not after.

## What an LLC does NOT do

- It does not exempt you from tax in your country of residence. If you live in Spain, France, Germany or Portugal, you are taxed there on worldwide income. The LLC organises your US side (zero federal tax for non-resident SMLLC pass-through, absent Effectively Connected Income); it does not switch off your domestic taxation. The income tax is computed on the attributed profit, not on the dividends actually paid.

- It is not an offshore vehicle or a BEPS scheme. It is a US entity recognised by the IRS, registered in a specific state with physical address, registered agent and annual informational filings. Classic offshore jurisdictions (BVI, Belize, Seychelles) leave no public trace; an LLC leaves a trace in five different places.

- It does not protect you if you commingle funds. The pierce the corporate veil doctrine kicks in as soon as a judge sees the LLC and the member behaving as the same wallet: mixed accounts, personal expenses paid from the LLC, no signed Operating Agreement, no bookkeeping. Three suspicious transactions are enough.

- It does not save you social security contributions at home. If you are self-employed in Spain, France or Germany, your monthly social contribution remains identical. The LLC handles the trading side with international clients; your personal contribution is independent.

- It does not exempt you from declaring foreign accounts. Spain residents file Modelo 720 / 721; UK residents, the SA106; Portugal residents, the Anexo J of Modelo 3 IRS; Germany residents, the Anlage AUS. Those obligations belong to the individual, not to the LLC.

At Exentax we cover those five fronts every year alongside the US federal calendar (Form 5472, pro-forma 1120, FBAR, state Annual Report and BOI Report when applicable). The goal is that no inquiry finds a loose end and that the structure withstands a 5-to-7-year retroactive review.

Want to discuss it now? Message us on WhatsApp and we'll get back to you today.

If you'd rather discuss it live, book a free session and we'll review your real case in thirty minutes.

Or call us directly at +34 614 916 910 if you'd rather talk.

For state-specific details, see our Wyoming LLC service page with closed costs and timelines.

If your priority is the ITIN, see Get your ITIN with Exentax and we'll handle it in parallel.

Book a free 30-minute consultation. We review your real situation and tell you what actually fits. Book a free consultation.