Commission Splits
Basic Concepts
What is a commission split?
Commission splits are used to separate the performance and booking fees to display how much is owed to the artist and/or agent.
What is a "Booking Fee"?
The Booking Fee is the commission fee corresponding to the agency.
What is an "Artist Fee"?
The "Artist Fee" is Commission fee corresponding to the artist(s).
What is "On Top"?
"On Top" refers to the additional charge above the original offer price. For example, an offer amount of $1,000 plus 15% agency fee "On Top" would have a SubTotal of $1,150. An agent or agency can choose to include their fee in the offer amount or as added "On Top."
Financial Terms
What is Guarantee?
The Guarantee is total booking amount excluding tax that is being charged to the purchaser.
Tax Rates
Understanding Tax Rates
What is a Tax Rate?
Is the percentage at which a business or person is taxed.
How many Tax Rates can I add and why?
You can add as many as you need. We've made it convenient for agencies that work with international talent buyers as most countries will have different tax rates.
Where can I find Tax Rates (VAT) for European countries?
You can find them in the European Commission website
Setting Up Tax Rate Presets
Where do I set my Tax Rate Presets?
Your Tax Rate settings are listed in the Agency Admin Panel on the left-hand side under Invoices, Offer and Payments > Tax Rates.
Managing Presets and Settings
Default Configurations
Where can I set a default booking fee percentage or amount for a specific artist that automatically applies to their bookings?
Your preset settings are listed in the Agency Admin Panel on the left-hand side under Invoices, Offers, and Payments, in the Artist Commissions section.
Can I save a default for a deposit percentage?
Yes you can! This can be done in the invoice presets under Payments > Presets. You can select a preferred default preset or set a custom one.
Can I save a default due date for deposits and balances?
Yes! To set a default due date for deposits and balances visit the Agency Admin Panel. On the left-hand menu go to Payments > Presets and set the dates for each invoice as needed.
How guarantee, commission and sales tax work together
Sales tax (VAT, GST, HST, IVA) is tax added to what the buyer pays. This article explains how Gigwell builds the numbers on your booking, so you can tell at a glance whether a figure is behaving correctly.
The order Gigwell builds the deal in
Guarantee is the pre-tax deal total. It is the number you agree with the buyer, and it never changes to include sales tax.
Gigwell splits the Guarantee into Artist Fee and Booking Fee (your commission). Commission is taken on the gross, so a 10% commission on a 10,000 guarantee is 1,000, leaving an artist fee of 9,000.
Sales tax is applied to each line separately, using the Tax bracket you set on that line under Terms → Offer.
Withholding, if you have any, is applied last. See the article on how withholding is calculated.
Inclusive vs exclusive
Each Tax bracket on the Artist Fee and Booking Fee lines is set either inclusive or exclusive:
Exclusive — the tax is added on top of the line. The buyer pays more than the guarantee.
Inclusive — the tax is carved out of the line. The buyer pays the guarantee, and part of it is tax.
Worked example
Guarantee 10,000, commission 10% → Booking Fee 1,000, Artist Fee 9,000
Sales tax 10%, set exclusive on both lines → 900 on the artist fee, 100 on the booking fee
Buyer pays 11,000
The Guarantee field still reads 10,000
Good to know
The guarantee is always the pre-tax figure. If you add an exclusive tax and the Guarantee field does not move, that is correct, not a fault. Look at the invoice total for the amount the buyer actually pays.
Rounding is normal. Every line — commission, each tax line, each withholding — is stored to two decimals, and downstream figures are calculated from the rounded value. So sales tax on commission follows the rounded commission rather than the exact one. There is no precision setting, and the difference is normally a fraction of a unit. If what you see is out by much more than that, start a chat from the messenger and we'll take a look.
Which rate applies to your deal, and whether tax is due at all, is a question for your accountant — we can show you where every setting lives and how the platform gets to its number.
If you have any questions or need additional help, please reach out to support@gigwell.com or use the chat widget on your screen.