ADVICE REQUEST - Can you help me accept steem as a payment method for fresh truffles?
I'd like to be the first in the world to accept Steem for Truffles and Truffle Products...
I've just started importing and selling in the UK. My website (https://www.truffleface.co.uk for anyone interested) has "soft-launched", and we will be doing a full launch at a party in the next few weeks with bloggers, foodies, chefs and anyone else interested in truffles.
I wonder if anyone can point me towards any resources (or explain in the comments here) which would show me how to incorporate an option to pay with Steem and/or SBD on to the site?
My accountant is a bit wary of me doing it because he's not toally sure how to treat the income.. he assumes it will be the same as accepting a foreign currency, but if anyone here knows different, please let me know.
Thanks in advance, freewill
P.S. any constructive criticism of my website would be much appreciated.
If you're considering this as part of your business then your accountant really needs to be across it. I'm not from the UK, however a couple of years ago they laid out some basics in this document which is fairly readable. But again you're going to need professional advice.
I wonder, if exiting the EU will change things though, as a lot of the initial legislation was designed to be in-line with the rest of the EU.
It also depends on the how payments are 'received' within the business. The easiest method would be a payent processor that only deposits in fiat. This means you could offer steem/bitcoin/whatever payments and only have to report the fiat income as usual. I believe these exist for bitcoin (but i haven't used) Finding one that supports Steem is going to be more difficult this early though.
The tax compliance stuff is the trickiest part. check out this post by @einsteinpotsdam on how they're accepting steem in their store already.
Thanks for your advice, and the link to the einstein's post (although I think the mechanics of online sales is a bit different to in-person).
I think you're right about accepting payments in fiat from a payment processor being the easiest way to go about it. I wonder if bitpay or someone will begin to accept Steem. To be honest though, I'd rather just keep things in crypto if possible... Ideally I'd like to convince my supplier to accept it too.
I've just talked to my accountant and they say that there is someone else within the company who has got experience in clients accepting crypto, so I'll have a talk with him and see if he sounds like he is on top of it.
Personally I doubt they'll change the laws on crypto post-brexit, but it's over 2 years before that takes effect anyway.
Talk to the folks at Bitshares Munich, creators of Block POS. http://www.bitshares-munich.de/
Nice one- thanks Lovejoy : )
I'm searching for this answer myself. So far one can accept STEEM payments sent to their STEEM wallet here on steemit. So yesterday a client had paid for a t-shirt with steem by sending an ETH payment to the company's ETH->STEEM wallet address via blocktrades (the recommended STEEM buying option on steemit: https://blocktrades.us/?input_coin_type=btc&output_coin_type=steem&receive_address=olkodesign .)
My advice for you & your accountant is to research as much about blockchain technology & cryptocurrencies as possible and to get him interested by informing him as much as you know as well. The technology is the future of money -- it's basically giving the power back to the individual. If I buy a truffle from you and pay you directly via the blockchain (depending on the coin we use,) and I'm located in the U.S. and you're in Italy, then we don't need to pay the fees associated with fiat (i.e., converting USD to Euro, paying a foreign transaction fee by use of a bank card, fees from paypal or sending money with Western Union shudder.) Banking fees is a multi-billion dollar industry.
As far as constructive criticism to your website, I would like to see an active stream of information about truffles. I have never tried one, but your website doesn't do much to convince me to do so. What do they taste like? What exactly are they, a type of fungus, right? I only know about them from an episode of the Simpsons where they were using a pig to snuff the truffles out in the woods.
This is the type of information that is both valuable to your site's ranking and your potential customers. I didn't realize I could buy a truffle for 7 euros. I thought the price range was in the 1,000's. But still, after surfing two or three pages in your site I just exed it out because it left work for me to do on my own to decide I want to buy one. I left not knowing anything more than I came in with. Anyway, beautiful photographs on the site and a lot of potential.
Here's a truffle hog in action:
May your time be spent productively to produce your happiness.