Earnings & payouts

The first step is connecting a Stripe Express account. You can start from the Payouts page in your Settings: Set up payouts takes you through Stripe's onboarding (identity, bank details, tax information). Stripe handles the identity checks (KYC); Verhaler never sees your bank account or government ID.

For a walkthrough of what Stripe asks, see Setting up payouts. Most of the form is filled in for you.

• Once onboarding finishes, your Payouts page shows the connection state and your payout history.

• A reader buys an expansion at the price you set. Stripe collects the money on Verhaler's behalf.
• Your share is transferred straight to your Connect balance. Verhaler keeps the rest: its book-sale fee (see below) plus the VAT it remits as merchant of record.
• On your payout schedule, Stripe pays your Connect balance to your bank once it reaches the €3 minimum (3.00 in your payout currency). Smaller balances roll forward to the next payout.

A book sale has one platform fee: the book-sale rate, a flat 20% for every writer, taken from the VAT-exclusive amount - the price your reader paid minus the tax actually charged on that sale. You keep 80% of the VAT-exclusive amount of every sale. Because tax depends on the reader's country, the same $4.99 book pays $3.99 from a US reader (no VAT), $3.35 from a German reader (19%), and $3.14 from a Hungarian reader (27%). The fee covers payment processing and Verhaler's merchant-of-record work: collecting the money and handling the VAT wherever it's owed.

Verhaler pays Stripe's processing fee out of its own cut, not out of yours. You never pay anything out of pocket; the fee only comes out of a sale.

If a Reader buys through one of our mobile apps, the app store that routed the purchase charges a service fee on that sale. That fee is deducted from the Writer's share, not from Verhaler's 20% commission, and the exact amount is shown on the affected sale in the Sales page. A Reader who buys on the website is unaffected.

• Schedule. Stripe runs payouts automatically on the default schedule for your country, typically daily or weekly on a rolling basis. You can change it in the Stripe Express dashboard. Payouts run once your balance reaches 3.00 in your payout currency (€3 / £3 / $3). A smaller balance isn't lost; it rolls forward and pays out as soon as the minimum is met.
• History. The Payouts page lists every past payout with its amount, arrival date, and status. For the full transaction-level breakdown, use the Open Stripe dashboard button on the page once your account is active.
• Disputes and refunds. Verhaler handles reader disputes and refunds. When the reader wins a dispute, the corresponding amount is reversed from your Connect balance and they lose access. Chargebacks (card disputes) are decided by the card networks, not Verhaler. You won't be notified before the outcome, and the reversal is automatic.

Paid publishing (setting a price on a book and getting paid out) runs on Stripe, and Stripe itself supports sellers in a long and growing list of countries. Verhaler doesn't reach all of them yet: our payouts run from the Netherlands, and today they work across most of Europe (the EEA) and in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Switzerland. The requirement only applies when you connect Stripe to charge for an expansion. If we can't pay out to your country yet, you can still publish for free. We'll widen the list as we're able to.

• The Payouts page only offers the countries we can pay out to today. If yours isn't in the list, onboarding won't start, and a note there confirms you can still publish for free. You can see everywhere Stripe operates on Stripe's global availability page.

Verhaler is the seller on every book sale. The reader pays us, and we handle the sales tax wherever it's owed. What reaches your Connect balance is your royalty.

Once a month, we issue a single document in your name for everything you earned. You never have to invoice us. Most writers have no VAT registration, so the document is a plain, VAT-free earnings statement for your own tax return. If you add a btw-id / EU VAT number on the Payouts page in your Settings, you get a self-billed VAT invoice issued in your name instead. Adding the VAT id is how you authorise us to self-bill (Dutch art. 35a invoicing rules; the Terms spell it out). No earnings in a month means no document. If refunds exceed your earnings, you get a credit note instead. The documents live under Self-billed invoices on the Payouts page, from your first invoiced month on.

If you do add a btw-id, the invoice depends on where you're based. VAT-registered writers outside the Netherlands, and writers based outside the EU, are generally invoiced under reverse-charge. That means no VAT on the invoice, and you account for it yourself. Dutch writers see Dutch VAT. We work out which applies from your country (set when you connect Stripe) and the VAT id you add on the Payouts page. Writers with no btw-id are never reverse-charged; they get the VAT-free earnings statement.