#excid3-credit-notes
austere terrace
Hi there! Not really... they are just a feature that you can use. It really depends on your use-case. You can always perform normal refunds for the PaymentIntent associated with the invoice.
timid field
It says on the docs:
Refunds of charges associated with an Invoice don’t reduce your overall tax liability and don’t show up in Stripe Tax reporting. Learn more about how refunds work.
In most cases, you should use credit notes instead of refunds. Credit notes reduce your overall tax liability and show up in Stripe Tax reporting. Learn more about how credit notes work.
I'm working on an open source project, so I don't know if people will have Tax on their invoices. Am I correct in thinking that CreditNotes would be the best default?
austere terrace
Ah yes if you are going to be dealing with Tax then credit notes are recommended. However, if you use one-off invocies, then customers may be upset that they are just holding a "balance" within Stripe instead of getting their money back.
So it is really up to you.
timid field
Hmm, I'm not sure I understand the one-off invoice point.
If I create a credit note with refund_amount, it would refund them still?
austere terrace
Ah doh!
Sorry haven't played with credit notes in a while.
You are correct. So yes, if you are handling Tax, then credit notes are going to be a better holistic approach here.
timid field
Awesome
And if tax wasn't enabled on an invoice, the credit note should work the same as creating a refund like normal
austere terrace
I believe so, yes. I'd recommend testing this out to be 100% sure -- like I said I haven't played with credit notes in a bit so don't want to lead you astray 🙂