Merchant of Record vs Payment Processor: What Founders Usually Miss
A payment processor moves money. A Merchant of Record usually becomes the seller on the hook for the transaction. Treat them as the same thing and you'll end up with gaps in tax, invoicing and support.
Processing a payment doesn't make someone your seller
Stripe, Adyen and the rest can run the card payment. That alone doesn't make them the legal seller to your customer.
If you're still the seller, the rest is still yours too: tax registration, customer invoices, your refund policy, chargebacks and whatever local compliance applies.
What a MoR or reseller can absorb
A true MoR or reseller model can take over the customer sale end to end: collecting and remitting indirect taxes, issuing invoices, handling refunds, running some of the compliance.
How much it covers depends on the provider. Some handle SaaS worldwide, some only EU VAT, some are marketplaces, and some won't touch human services at all.
- • Legal seller status
- • Tax calculation, collection and remittance
- • Customer invoices and VAT ID collection
- • Refund and chargeback workflows
- • Product category restrictions
How to check which one you're dealing with
Marketing copy won't tell you. Ask the provider straight: are you the legal seller for my business model, from my country, to my customers, on my payment flow?
MoR Finder records each provider's model, confidence level and source links, so you start from what's documented instead of what you're hoping is true.
Turn the article into a shortlist.
Use the directory and finder to compare providers by accepted products, tax coverage, payout fit and documentation confidence.