This article is relevant to United States customers only. If you are not a US customer, click here to see your fees as a Canadian customer, or click here to view your fees as a UK customer.Overview
This article explains how your fees are calculated and billed on your GotPhoto invoice. GotPhoto applies different rounding rules for billable order fees and the amount charged when an order is placed. Photographer Fee Payment
Fees Overview
There are 5 types of fees that can be charged by GotPhoto:
| Fees Charged via Your Monthly Invoice (on Your Credit Card) | Fees Deducted from Your Customers' Payments | |||
| Monthly Subscription Fee* | If you choose an annual fee, it will be charged upfront with the first invoice following the change. | Payment Fee | Payment fees are a combination of 2.9% of the order + $0.30. | |
| Editing Service Fees | These fees are only charged if you utilize any of our editing services. | Service Fee | Percentage-based (dependent on your plan), applied per order on gross revenue. | |
| Sales Tax on GotPhoto Fees | Percentage-based (depending on your state), applied per fee. | |||
*Not applicable for Enterprise customers
Sales Tax
Sales Tax on Items Sold (Paid by Your Customers):
GotPhoto is a Marketplace Facilitator. Therefore, we will collect the sales tax from your customers' payments. On the order page, we use the term "Photographer Fee Payment" to refer to the total amount deducted from your customer's order payments. This total includes the service fee, payment fee, and, if applicable, the sales tax.
Sales Tax on GotPhoto Service Fees (Paid by You):
Beginning on January 1, 2025, in compliance with state tax regulations, we are required to apply sales tax to our GotPhoto fees in the US. The addition of sales tax does not impact our base rates. This change does not affect Canadian customers.
To comply with state regulations, GotPhoto will apply sales tax to services in specific states where service taxes are mandated. Sales tax will be collected in the following states:
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This list is subject to change as tax regulations evolve. We will keep you updated on any changes.
Sales tax will be calculated and charged for services used starting in January 2025 in your monthly invoices, applied to all relevant GotPhoto fees which are listed on your monthly GotPhoto invoice:
- Service fees
- Payment fees
- Monthly or annual subscription fees
- Editing fees (if applicable). Our Sports Graphic Services by Next Gen are at this point not impacted by this change.
Fees incurred before January 2025 will not be affected by this change, ensuring that only new services going forward are subject to sales tax. Each invoice will display these fees with the associated sales tax amounts.
We charge you the gross order fees, collected via Stripe and added to your studio’s balance as the Photographer Fee:
| Order # | Fees Net | Tax | Fees Gross |
| 1 | 1.19 | 6.50% | 1.27 |
| 2 | 8.23 | 6.50% | 8.76 |
| 3 | 4.13 | 6.50% | 4.40 |
| 4 | 5.01 | 6.50% | 5.34 |
| 5 | 1.23 | 6.50% | 1.31 |
| 6 | 8.78 | 6.50% | 9.35 |
| 7 | 9.19 | 6.50% | 9.79 |
| 8 | 10.34 | 6.50% | 11.01 |
| 9 | 4.78 | 6.50% | 5.09 |
| 10 | 6.54 | 6.50% | 6.97 |
| Total Fees Net: | 59.42 | Total Fees Gross: | 63.29 |
In the above example, the studio accumulated $63.29 in order fees for the month.
When preparing the monthly invoice, we apply the local sales tax to the Invoice’s Total Net order fees, which totals $63.28 in this sample data. This creates a minor rounding difference of one cent due to decimal rounding.
To ensure accuracy, this one-cent difference will be adjusted directly on the invoice, so the final total reflects the exact amount owed.
This sample invoice illustrates how Sales Tax is now itemized separately, directly below the subtotal, to provide a clear understanding of tax charges on billed services.
If you’re eligible, we’ll share more details on submitting a tax exemption certificate soon. If you don’t have one, please consult your local tax office or advisor to confirm eligibility, as GotPhoto cannot assist with this process.
Negative Balances
You may notice a negative balance in your account throughout the month. The amount is dependent on the volume of orders you handle.
The reason for this is due to how GotPhoto calculates fees. There are two types of fees:
- Service Fee: % of gross revenue
- Payment Fee: 2.9% per payment + $0.30
For both fee types, our accounting uses four decimal places, while the charges we apply have only two decimal places. This difference in precision can cause a balance discrepancy. Please note that this rounding practice also applies to fees for orders that are placed manually via Order Entry.
Example:
The gross order amount of an order is $45.24.
The fees that are applied are:
- A service fee of 7% → $3.1668
- A payment fee of 2.9% → $1.268 + a $0.30 payment fee (Total: $1.568)
Charges are rounded to just two digits. Therefore, GotPhoto deducts the following amounts for this sample order:
- A service fee of $3.17
- A payment fee of $1.57
Due to volume, we have higher precision when we sum up all fees for an entire month. This results in a difference between the total amount of fees and the total amount of charges. In some months, this difference may result in a positive balance, while other months may result in a small negative balance.
A negative balance can also be a result of a Prepay order. When a transaction is processed, GotPhoto charges all applicable fees and taxes. Your fees are billed immediately, but your sales tax is billed when your Prepay orders have been processed. This means that unlike your fees, your sales tax will end up as a credit in your GotPhoto balance and look like available funds that can be withdrawn in a payout. If you choose to request a payout at this time, your balance will run negative in the next billing cycle due to the sales tax being billed.
Using billable items with four decimals ensures fairness, especially for photographers with a high volume of small orders. Rounding up even one cent for each order could lead to a different total service fee at the end of the month. This is why we have chosen to apply rounding rules in this way.
Negative balances will be resolved when new orders are made. In the event of no sales activity for an extended period of time, GotPhoto will issue an invoice after 60 days.
The Takeaway
GotPhoto's fee structure includes fees charged via your monthly invoice and via deductions from your orders. In this article, we've reviewed how these fees are calculated, as well as how rounding can create small balance differences that are always resolved in the following invoice. Starting in January 2025, sales tax will be applied to GotPhoto fees in specific states.