Background: a Brazilian brand priced into the global market
The founder had built a beauty DTC brand in São Paulo that achieved product-market fit on Instagram and TikTok. EU and US customers started buying through international shipping, but Stripe Brazil’s cross-border processing terms made the unit economics impossible, and PayPal Brazil’s chargeback handling was punishing the brand. The founder needed an EU operating company to access Stripe Ireland, EU-based payment processing fees and OSS-compliant VAT collection.
The challenge: setting up a real EU entity, not a shell Stripe will reject
Stripe’s underwriting team rejects shell entities aggressively. A Brazilian founder applying with a freshly-incorporated entity, a c/o address and no Irish presence often sees applications declined or held in pending review for weeks, losing peak sales periods. The Brazilian founder also had to comply with Section 137 (EEA-resident director) and the RBO declaration, both of which Stripe diligence checks via CRO and RBO public lookups.
The solution: real-substance Irish LTD with nominee director, registered office and OSS VAT
Chern & Co built the entity for Stripe approval from day one:
- Incorporation, Irish LTD with founder as 100% shareholder and ordinary director, plus EEA-resident nominee director under Section 137
- Registered office in Limerick, displayed publicly on CRO; mail forwarded to São Paulo
- RBO declaration filed inside week three, well before the 5-month deadline
- Revenue tax registration for corporation tax and VAT, with VAT-OSS scheme registration for B2C distance sales across the EU
- Stripe Ireland application assembled with CRO certificate, RBO confirmation, registered office utility, director ID and a memo describing the underlying e-commerce activity
- EU bank account opened with a Tier-1 EMI in parallel
The outcome: EU sales live on day 28
Stripe Ireland approved the merchant account on day 24, the first VAT-OSS-compliant sale shipped to Germany on day 28, and the founder retained roughly 3 percentage points of margin per transaction by leaving Stripe Brazil for Stripe Ireland on cross-border orders. The OSS quarterly return is now filed by Chern & Co’s compliance team, and the founder ships from a 3PL in Poland under Irish VAT numbers.
“Stripe Ireland approved my new Irish LTD inside a week. Chern & Co handled CRO, RBO, VAT and bank in parallel. I never lost a payments-processing day.”
– Founder, São Paulo DTC brand
Why Irish LTDs pass Stripe diligence cleanly
Stripe’s underwriters look for three signals: a verifiable CRO record, a real registered office (not a c/o), and a beneficial-owner declaration on the RBO. Companies built with those three elements from day one, plus a nominee director who is genuinely EEA-resident, clear underwriting in days, not weeks. Cutting corners costs more time later than doing it right at the start.
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