Fees & Tax Treatment

01 Current pilot platform fee: $0

ProvisionLoop currently adds no platform fee to any payment. The checkout charges the kitchen's posted cost per meal multiplied by the number of meals, and nothing else. There is no percentage cut and no per-transaction surcharge in the code that creates a checkout.

A platform fee is a configurable part of a future version of this document. If one is ever introduced it will be disclosed in advance as a new version of this page, shown in checkout before you pay, and will never be applied retroactively to a payment already made.

02 How the displayed amount is calculated

Exactly as the application computes it:

• The operator sets a cost per meal for the kitchen, and optionally a different cost per meal for a specific meal template.
• That figure is read on the server from the kitchen or template record — never from your browser — so a client cannot choose its own price.
• The charge is cost per meal × number of meals. The per-meal unit price must be at least US$0.50 for the processor to accept it.
• Sales tax is calculated automatically by the payment processor where it applies. If the account has no tax origin address configured, checkout proceeds untaxed.

03 Payment processing costs

Payment processing is performed by Stripe, which charges its own fees to the ProvisionLoop account under Stripe's published pricing. Those fees are set by Stripe, not by ProvisionLoop, and this page does not restate a percentage we do not control.

What the code does today, precisely: the payout recorded for a delivered order equals the full amount charged for that order, and that full amount is transferred to the kitchen's connected payout account. Processing costs are not deducted from the kitchen's payout — they are absorbed by the ProvisionLoop account. If that ever changes, it changes here first, as a new version.

04 Kitchen payouts

• A payout is queued only when an order is marked delivered, and only for a kitchen whose operator has claimed the listing and completed payout onboarding.
• Payouts are sent to the operator's connected account with the payment processor.
• Operators are independent businesses responsible for their own taxes and their own tax reporting. See the Kitchen Participation Agreement.

05 Tax treatment — read this before you assume a deduction

ProvisionLoop makes no claim that any payment made through the platform is a charitable contribution or is tax-deductible. ProvisionLoop does not represent itself as a nonprofit, a tax-exempt organization, a fiscal sponsor or a tax adviser.

Under IRS Publication 526, a charitable contribution deduction is generally available only for a gift to a qualified organization, under an applicable arrangement, and reduced by the value of anything you receive in return. A payment to a for-profit local kitchen for meal production, coordinated through a platform, does not by itself meet that standard.

Receipts and confirmations issued through the platform are payment records. They are not charitable contribution acknowledgments and they contain no statement of deductibility, because none is warranted.

Your own situation may differ — for example if a qualified organization is directly involved in your arrangement. Consult your own tax adviser. Nothing on this page is tax advice.

06 Receipts and records

The payment processor issues the payment receipt. Your funding history and its identifiers stay visible in your account. Use one of those identifiers — never a card number — when you contact us through the refund and cancellation form.

07 Pilot status

Live payments are disabled. Checkout runs in the payment processor's test environment until the operating legal entity and a monitored legal contact channel are published in the Legal Center. No real money is captured before then.