In Stripe Connect, who is listed as the merchant of record?

• A. The platform or the connected account
• B. The buyer
• C. The bank
• D. The payment processor

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the merchant of record is the entity responsible for the sale and what the customer sees on receipts and tax-related forms. In Stripe Connect this role isn’t fixed to one party; it depends on the charge flow. For direct charges, the connected account processes the payment in its own name, making the connected account the merchant of record. For destination charges, the platform presents the charge to the customer and is the merchant of record, even though funds are later transferred to the connected account. So the merchant of record can be either the platform or the connected account, depending on how the Connect integration is set up. It’s not the buyer, the bank, or the payment processor.