Hey everyone,
I’m hoping someone here might have some insight into a tricky scenario.
I want to accept physical (card-present) payments in the U.S. (in USD) for a European or offshore-registered company, but I’d like to avoid setting up a U.S. entity if at all possible. The ideal setup would be having a POS device in the States, processing card transactions directly for the foreign entity.
I’ve thought about a few angles:
I'm not sure this is relevant, but︌ my foreign entity can have a real US bank account to settle in if needed,︍ although again ideally I would like to avoid this.
Any insights, suggestions, or shared experiences︎ would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
I’m hoping someone here might have some insight into a tricky scenario.
I want to accept physical (card-present) payments in the U.S. (in USD) for a European or offshore-registered company, but I’d like to avoid setting up a U.S. entity if at all possible. The ideal setup would be having a POS device in the States, processing card transactions directly for the foreign entity.
I’ve thought about a few angles:
- Android POS Terminals from Alibaba:
Maybe configuring an online merchant account on a custom Android POS. I also thought this might still trigger a 3DS challenge flow at the point of sale, which feels awkward and clunky. It might be possible to bypass 3DS, but that still seems︀ less than ideal for a smooth checkout experience.
- Instant Crypto Conversion:
Another idea is to︁ accept the card payment in the U.S., immediately convert it into USDT (or another stablecoin),︂ and then off-ramp that crypto into FIAT for the offshore company’s bank account. The downside︃ is this could get expensive, and I’m not sure how seamless it would be in︄ practice.
- Use a Payment Processing / Agency LLC:
While I don't love this idea, I︅ recognize this might be the only choice: having an LLC (ideally registered as an MSB︆ or other payment processing business) that collects the payments and releases them to my foreign-owned︇ company. However, they might get in trouble because this income could potentially be ECI.
- Having a European POS device that charges in USD:
Could you not be able to︈ just have a POS device in Europe that accepts payments in USD and ship the︉ physical device to the US?
I'm not sure this is relevant, but︌ my foreign entity can have a real US bank account to settle in if needed,︍ although again ideally I would like to avoid this.
Any insights, suggestions, or shared experiences︎ would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
