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Kelviq operates as your Merchant of Record (MoR). This means we are the legal reseller of your products to the end customer. We handle the taxes, compliance, and payment liability so you don’t have to.

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What is a Merchant of Record (MOR)?

The “Merchant of Record” is the most important concept to understand when using Kelviq. It’s the engine that enables you to sell globally without handling the legal and financial complexity yourself. A Merchant of Record is the entity that is legally responsible for selling a product to an end customer. When a customer buys your product, their financial transaction is with the MOR (Kelviq), not with your company. We take on the responsibility for that sale, handling all the complex financial and legal requirements that come with it. This model allows you to focus 100% on building your product while we handle the entire checkout, tax, and compliance backend.

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The Core Responsibilities of an MOR

By acting as your MOR, Kelviq takes on a massive amount of financial and legal liability. This is the “hard part” of global sales that we handle for you:
  • 📈 Global Tax & Compliance This is the single biggest challenge of selling online. An MOR is responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting sales taxes like VAT (Europe), GST (Australia), JCT (Japan), and state-level sales tax in the U.S.
  • 🛡️ Financial Liability & Risk The MOR is financially liable for every transaction. This includes bearing the cost of customer chargebacks (disputes) and all fraudulent payments.
  • ⚖️ Payment & Regulatory Burden The MOR ensures that every part of the checkout and payment process is compliant with global regulations, such as PCI-DSS and PSD2/SCA.

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How it Works: A Real-World Example

To understand exactly where the money goes, let’s look at a specific transaction.
  1. The Sale: A customer in Germany visits your site and buys your product. You have set the price at €50.00.
  2. The Calculation: Kelviq automatically detects the customer is in Germany and adds the 19% German VAT (€9.50). The customer pays a total of €59.50.
  3. The Legal Transaction: The customer’s €59.50 transaction is legally with Kelviq. We are the “seller” on their invoice.
  4. Tax Remittance (The Hard Part): At the end of the quarter, our finance team takes that €9.50 and files the VAT return with the German authorities. You never see or touch this tax money, so you never have to worry about it.
  5. Your Payout: We take our simple platform fee from the original €50.00 and deposit the rest directly into your bank account.
You get your expected revenue. We handle the legal and tax complexity of the extra €9.50.

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MOR vs. Payment Service Provider (PSP)

A PSP (like Stripe or PayPal) gives you the tools to process a payment, but you are still the seller of record.
FeaturePayment Service Provider (PSP)Merchant of Record (Kelviq)
Who is the Seller?You are the seller of record.Kelviq is the seller of record.
Tax LiabilityYour responsibility. You must register, file, and remit.Kelviq’s responsibility. We handle all filing and payments.
Fraud RiskYou. You lose the sale + fees on chargebacks.Kelviq. We take the financial hit.
Time to MarketWeeks or months of setup.Minutes.

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Your Two Model Choices in Kelviq

Kelviq is designed to be flexible, offering two primary ways to operate: 1. Kelviq as your Merchant of Record (Recommended) This is the default and recommended model. When you sign up, Kelviq acts as your MOR, handling all the responsibilities described on this page. You get the full all-in-one platform with zero compliance overhead. 2. Bring Your Own Stripe Account (BYOA) For businesses that prefer to remain the Merchant of Record, you can connect your own Stripe account. In this model, you are responsible for your own tax, fraud, and compliance, but you still get access to all of Kelviq’s monetization features—such as our usage-based billing engine, feature flagging, and localization tools.