How Managed Payments works
Learn how to use Managed Payments to sell digital products globally.
Use Managed Payments with Stripe Checkout or Payment Links to sell digital products such as SaaS, software, and digital content or downloads, without operating local business entities in each country where you sell your products.
Managed Payments is the Stripe merchant of record solution that handles the following for you:
| Sales tax, VAT, and GST compliance | Managed Payments handles indirect tax compliance on sales to customers in more than 80 countries. It calculates and collects tax based on product classification and customer location, then files and remits payments to the relevant tax authorities. For transactions in countries where Managed Payments doesn’t handle indirect tax compliance, you remain responsible for compliance. You can use Stripe Tax to calculate tax for those transactions at no additional charge. |
|---|---|
| Checkout optimizations | Managed Payments checkout pages use Link for the transaction, which allows your customers to reuse their saved payment details. Adaptive Pricing is enabled by default, so customers can pay in their local currency and with their preferred local payment method. |
| Transaction-related emails | Stripe automatically sends receipts, invoices, refunds, and certain subscription-related emails directly to customers from Link. |
| Customer order and transaction support | Customers can manage orders through Link. Link also handles transaction-level support and might contact you when needed. You retain full visibility and control for product-level support. You can issue refunds and update subscriptions in the Dashboard or with the API. |
| Fraud prevention | Stripe uses AI and real-time monitoring to manage fraud. No action is needed from you because Stripe configures the rules and maintains blocklists. |
| Dispute management | Stripe handles disputes for you. We use both automated and manual processes to review and handle each dispute, including submitting evidence on your behalf. |
Managed Payments customer flow
For Managed Payments transactions, customers interact with Link at checkout, on receipts, and for post-purchase support. The customer sees Link as the merchant of record, and sees purchases as Sold through Link.
The customer checks out
Stripe uses Adaptive Pricing to automatically convert prices into the customer’s local currency based on their location.
At checkout, customers can pay with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Link, and select local payment methods. Customers can use an existing Link account, create a new one during checkout, or check out as a guest.
The checkout page footer displays standardized payment terms. You can add a custom terms of service and privacy policy in your Checkout settings.
When the payment completes, Stripe withholds the indirect taxes (sales tax, VAT, and GST) when applicable.
Note
Custom domains aren’t supported on Managed Payments checkouts.
After the payment
Stripe always sends receipts, invoices, and any refund or credit note notifications directly to the customer after payment. PDF versions of receipts and invoices are always attached.
These emails are sent from Link. Your receipt settings in the Dashboard don’t affect these emails.
Subscription-related email notifications
Stripe always sends certain subscription-related emails to customers from Link, including:
- A trial start email that confirms the subscription.
- A trial ending reminder. Stripe sends this in addition to the trial start email for all trials longer than 7 days. The Dashboard setting for trial ending emails doesn’t apply to these emails.
You can control emails for upcoming renewals, expired cards, and failed payments in the subscriptions and email settings in the Dashboard.
If you enable Upcoming renewals, Stripe sends an email before every subscription renewal.
If you disable this setting, Stripe still sends an upcoming renewal email as follows:
- Before the subscription’s 6-month and 12-month anniversary to customers in Australia and the United Kingdom
- Before the subscription’s 12-month anniversary for customers in all other countries
By default, Stripe sends anniversary emails 15 days before the anniversary date. You can change the timing in the Dashboard under Subscription and email settings > Upcoming renewal events. Anniversary emails must be sent at least 7 days before the anniversary date. The shorter timing options available for standard renewal reminders don’t apply.
Statement descriptor
The customer’s statement displays the related setting.COM* [Your statement descriptor], as defined by the statement descriptor logic.
Manage orders
When you use Managed Payments, your customers automatically have access to the Link website to manage the following for their orders:
- View order history
- Cancel or update subscriptions
- Update payment methods
- Update billing address
Customers that check out as a guest receive a prompt to create a Link account to access these order management tools.
You can also offer additional subscription management from your own website using the Customer Portal or your own solution.
Transaction support
Stripe handles payment and subscription-related support requests through Link support. Stripe might contact you if we need product-specific input from you. If you don’t respond within 48 hours, Stripe might issue a refund without your approval. You can still respond directly to customers, issue refunds, update subscriptions, and handle product-related issues yourself.
Note
Make sure your support email address is accurate and up-to-date in your Dashboard settings. Stripe uses this email address for all customer support escalations.
Refund support
Your customers can contact Link support to request refunds. Stripe can issue refunds within 60 days of the original transaction in certain cases.
When you or Stripe refund a transaction, the refund includes any sales tax the customer paid. Although the customer is refunded the full amount, Stripe is required to retain and remit the original sales tax amount on refunded transactions in certain jurisdictions. As a result, in these jurisdictions, your account balance will be reduced by the amount that corresponds to the original sales tax amount.
Dispute support
With Managed Payments, Stripe handles disputes for you. We use both automated tools and manual reviews to evaluate each dispute. If we decide to counter a dispute, we submit evidence on your behalf and won’t contact you for additional evidence. If we determine that you’re unlikely to win a dispute, we might accept it instead of countering it.
Received disputes incur a dispute received fee. To help reduce disputes, we can enable automated dispute prevention tools, such as Dispute Resolution, on your account for Managed Payments transactions. We charge your account for dispute prevention tools.
When Stripe submits evidence to counter a dispute, we cover the evidence submission fee.
Go to the Stripe Dashboard to view disputes on your Managed Payments transactions. You can also accept or counter disputes. An evidence submission fee applies if you counter a dispute yourself. If you add evidence to a dispute but don’t submit it, Stripe reviews the evidence and might submit it. If Stripe submits the evidence, we don’t charge you an evidence submission fee.
Payment method availability
Managed Payments supports the payment methods listed below. Some payment methods require local currency presentment before they appear at checkout.
Learn how to configure payment method settings for Managed Payments.
| Payment method | Supported customer countries | Supports one-time payments | Supports recurring payments | Requires local currency presentment | Supports Adaptive Pricing 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cards | Global | ||||
| Apple Pay | Global | ||||
| Google Pay | Global | ||||
| Link | Global | ||||
| Klarna | US | 2 | |||
| Cash App Pay | US | ||||
| Afterpay | US | ||||
| Korean cards, Kakao Pay, Naver Pay | South Korea | ||||
| Samsung Pay, the related setting | South Korea | ||||
| UPI | India | ||||
| Pix | Brazil | 3 | |||
| Bancontact | Belgium |
1 Adaptive Pricing is automatically available for Managed Payments and handles local currency conversion on your behalf. If Adaptive Pricing supports a payment method, you don’t need to handle local currency presentment for the payment method to display in your checkout.
2 Klarna only supports one-time payments for Managed Payments. You can accept Klarna for recurring payments for checkout sessions that don’t use Managed Payments. Learn how to set up future Klarna payments.
3 Pix doesn’t support daily subscriptions.
Reports
View your Managed Payments transactions in the Dashboard alongside your other transactions, and filter them by transaction type. Access detailed records in the Dashboard or with the API.
By default, the fee column in the following reports includes both Stripe fees and withheld tax. These reports include optional withheld_tax and fee_net_of_withheld_tax columns to break out withheld tax and fees separately:
- Balance Change from Activity Report
- Payout Reconciliation Report
- Ending Balance Reconciliation Report
To access these columns with the API, see Stripe Reports for available fields and report versions.
Use withheld_tax to identify the indirect tax that Stripe withheld and remitted on your behalf. Use fee_net_of_withheld_tax to see your Stripe processing fees excluding withheld tax.
Handle data deletion requests
Customers can request deletion of their information for all Managed Payments transactions and the associated Link account.
If a customer requests deletion, Stripe:
- Cancels any subscriptions sold to them through Managed Payments.
- Deletes their data from any data objects (including objects in your Stripe account) that are used for, or generated from, Managed Payments transactions. This includes the v2 Account , Customer , PaymentMethod , Invoice , PaymentIntent , Subscription , and Charge objects.
- Sends you an email notification when the data deletion request is received.
Payment processing
When you use Managed Payments, either Stripe Payments Company or Stripe Technology Europe, Limited (Stripe acquiring affiliates) acquires your transactions.