Payments & Escrow

Why escrow, specifically

Both sides of this marketplace are exposed at different points: the hirer is exposed before delivery (paying for work not yet done/verified), the creator is exposed after delivery (having delivered work with no guarantee of payment). Escrow — funds held by the platform, released only on approval — is the single mechanism that removes exposure from both sides simultaneously. This is non-negotiable infrastructure, not a nice-to-have.

Flow

1. Hirer funds escrow at HIRED: full gig amount (or first milestone amount) is charged to the hirer and held by the platform — not yet payable to the creator, but visibly committed, so the creator can see the money is real before starting work.
2. Creator works and submits deliverables.
3. Hirer reviews — approve (releases escrow to creator, minus commission) / request revision (within cap) / dispute.
4. Auto-approval failsafe: if the hirer doesn't act within the defined review window, funds auto-release to the creator (see 05-campaign-lifecycle.md).
5. Payout to creator: released funds move to the creator's available balance, withdrawable to bank/UPI on the platform's payout schedule (recommend T+2 business days for standard payout, with an optional instant-payout-for-a-fee tier later — see 06-business-model.md).

Payment methods (hirer-side funding)

• Cards (credit/debit), UPI, net banking — standard India payment stack via a payment gateway partner (Razorpay/Cashfree/PayU are the practical options; selection is a build decision, not specced here).
• Platform wallet/credit balance (from refunds, promotional credit, or pre-funded campaign budgets for agencies running multiple gigs).

Payout methods (creator-side)

• Direct bank transfer (NEFT/IMPS) or UPI payout.
• KYC required before first payout (see 07-trust-safety.md) — standard regulatory requirement for payment aggregators in India, not optional.

Commission mechanics

See 06-business-model.md for the business rationale; mechanically:

• Commission is deducted at release, not at funding — the creator sees "gig value ₹10,000 → your payout ₹9,000 (10% platform fee)" clearly itemized before accepting the gig, and again at payout, so there's no surprise.
• Hirer-side service fee (if the split-commission model is adopted) is added at funding: hirer sees "gig value ₹10,000 + ₹500 service fee = ₹10,500 charged."

Refunds

• Pre-work cancellation: full refund, no fee.
• Dispute resolved in hirer's favor: refund minus any payment-processing fee already incurred (processor fees are typically non-recoverable even on a refund — standard payment gateway behavior, factor into policy).
• Partial dispute resolution: partial refund to hirer, partial release to creator, per admin mediation outcome.

Milestone payments

For gigs split into milestones (see 05-campaign-lifecycle.md), each milestone independently follows the fund → deliver → approve → release cycle. The hirer isn't required to fund the entire gig value up front — only the current milestone — reducing the hirer's up-front risk on larger engagements while still giving the creator payment security milestone-by-milestone.

Compliance & tax (flagged for legal/finance sign-off — framework only, not final)

• GST: platform commission is a taxable service; invoicing must reflect this correctly for both platform-to-creator and platform-to-hirer legs.
• TDS: payments to creators may attract TDS obligations depending on creator's registration status and cumulative payment volume — needs explicit legal review before launch, this doc does not constitute tax advice.
• 1099-equivalent reporting: as creator earnings scale, providing creators with clean annual earnings statements (for their own tax filing) should be a built-in feature, not an afterthought — ties into 02-features-influencer.md invoice/tax document generation.

Fraud & chargeback handling

• Standard payment-gateway-level fraud screening on funding transactions.
• Chargeback handling policy: a hirer who charges back after a creator has been paid out creates a platform liability, not a creator liability — the platform absorbs this risk as a cost of doing business (never claw back from a creator who delivered in good faith and was already paid per policy), and should factor expected chargeback rate into commission pricing.