Taxes and fees

Setting up taxes

You can apply taxes to any sale in Arketa — class packs, memberships, retail items, etc.

1. Go to Settings → Taxes

2. Click Add Tax

3. Set:

   • Name — what appears on receipts (e.g., "Sales Tax", "GST")
   • Rate — percentage
   • What it applies to — all products, specific types, or specific pricing options

4. Save

Taxes are calculated on the item price only, not on Arketa's platform fees or Stripe's processing fees.

Alternatively, you can set up:

• Location tax - taxes applied to everything sold at a particular location. Set this up under Settings > Locations.
• Site Wide tax - taxes applied to everything sold through your platform. Enable under Settings > Payments.

How taxes appear

When a client purchases something with a tax applied, the tax amount is shown as a separate line item at checkout and on the receipt.

Stripe processing fees

Stripe charges a processing fee on every card transaction (typically 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards, varies by country and card type). This fee is deducted from your payout — you don't pay it separately.

Stripe does charge its processing fee on tax amounts as well. For example, if a $100 item has $10 in tax, Stripe calculates its fee on the full $110.

Transaction fees by plan

Every sale through Arketa includes a transaction fee on top of Stripe's processing fee. There are two separate fees on each sale:

• Stripe processing fee — charged on all plans, and varies based on location.
• Arketa booking fee — Arketa's transaction fee, which depends on your plan.

Plan	Transaction fee	Stripe fees
Arketa Starter	9%	Yes
Arketa Individual	3%	Yes
Arketa Studios	0–3%	Yes

These fees are what keep your subscription cost competitive while giving you an unlimited on-demand library and livestream integration.

Passing fees on to your clients

By default, all fees are passed on to the client at checkout, so you keep the full revenue of what you're selling.

When you're charged and how fees are calculated

Fees are split out immediately upon a successful transaction, and are separate from your own recurring Arketa subscription payment.

Fees are based on the final order total. If the price is $0, there's no transaction fee from either Arketa or Stripe.

Reviewing Arketa's fee on a transaction in Stripe

To see the breakdown of fees on a single sale:

1. Open the transaction in Stripe.

2. Find the Fee line item in the Payment details section.

3. Hover over the info icon next to the fee amount to see the split:

   • Stripe processing fees — the amount Stripe charged to process the payment.
   • Arketa application fees — Arketa's fee.

To download this data as a CSV or report, click View All Payments in Stripe. The key columns are:

• Charge Fee — the transaction fee.
• Charge Gross — the amount before fees.
• Charge Net — the amount transferred after the fee.

Arketa fees

Arketa's platform fees are not taxed. They're separate from what Stripe charges.

Where fees appear in reporting

Stripe's fees and Arketa's fees are visible in your Payouts section and your Balance Summary report. Your payout amount is your gross revenue minus Stripe fees. See how payouts work for a full breakdown.

Reporting VAT taxes (EU)

If you collect VAT in the EU, Arketa's payout reporting shows both where each payment was made and how much tax you collected, so you have what you need to file.

1. Go to Settings → Payments → View Payout History

2. Download each report for the tax year you're filing

3. In the report, use these columns:

   • country — the location where the payment was made.
   • tax_amount — the tax collected on that payment, which is the amount to report.

Setting up taxes for retail vs. classes

Some states tax retail products but not services (classes). You can configure different tax rules for different product categories — apply a retail tax rate to products only and leave classes tax-free, or configure based on your local tax requirements.