Become an Artist: Artwork, Royalties & Payouts

Sell Your Art on Official Spaghetti Showdown Merch

Spaghetti Showdown lets community artists earn real money from their artwork. When a product featuring your design is sold in the merch store, 15% of the sale price accrues to you as a royalty, and we pay it out monthly. This guide walks through the entire flow, from onboarding to receiving payments.

1. Create Your Artist Profile

Go to Become Artist from the site menu and create your profile: display name, bio, and portfolio link. This takes one minute and unlocks the Artist Dashboard.

2. Sign the Artist Contract

In the Artist Dashboard → Payout tab you'll find the artist agreement. It covers the license you grant us for printing your artwork on merchandise, originality guarantees, and data handling. Signing is digital and recorded with timestamp.

3. Complete Your Fiscal Profile

To be paid, we need to know how to treat your compensation under Italian tax law. In the Payout tab, fill in:

• Personal data: date of birth, codice fiscale and IBAN (stored encrypted).
• Fiscal address and birthplace (they appear on your payment receipts).
• Your fiscal regime — pick one of three:
  • Prestazione occasionale — you have no VAT number. We apply the 20% withholding tax (ritenuta d'acconto) and issue you a numbered receipt for every payment. Watch the €5,000/year threshold above which INPS gestione separata obligations apply: it counts occasional income from all your clients, not just us. We keep an eye on what we pay you and warn you as you approach it, but tracking the overall total is your own responsibility.
  • Forfettario — you have a VAT number under the flat-rate regime: you invoice us without withholding.
  • Ordinario — you have a standard VAT number: you invoice us and we apply the 20% withholding.

Not sure which applies to you? Ask your accountant — this choice affects your taxes.

4. Connect Stripe

Payouts arrive via Stripe Connect. Click Connect Stripe in the Payout tab and complete the short onboarding (identity + bank account). This is the same system used by platforms like Twitch and Kickstarter — we never see your banking credentials.

5. Upload Your Artwork

In the Submit tab, upload your original files. We accept JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, PSD, AI, SVG, WebP and PDF up to 100MB — files are stored exactly as uploaded, with no compression or re-encoding, so always send your print-quality original (300 DPI recommended).

Our team reviews every submission. You'll see the status (pending, approved, rejected with reason) in the Artworks tab.

6. Products Go on Sale

Once approved, we create merch products from your artwork (t-shirts, mugs and more, produced on demand by our print partner) and link them to your artist profile with your royalty percentage — 15% by default.

7. Royalties Accrue Automatically

Every time a customer buys a product with your design, your royalty is recorded instantly. You can watch it in the Earnings tab: each sale, quantity, and amount.

A few protection rules worth knowing:

• Customers can cancel an order within 72 hours for a full refund. Royalties from a refunded order are automatically removed — you're only ever paid on money we actually kept.
• A royalty becomes payable ("matured") once the order is locked into production.

8. Monthly Payouts

On the 1st of each month the system builds a payout batch:

• Your matured balance must be at least €50 — below that, it simply carries over to the next month.
• Your fiscal profile and contract must be complete.
• Withholding is applied according to your regime (20% for occasionale and ordinario, none for forfettario).

Each payout is reviewed and approved by an administrator, then paid to your Stripe account. If you're on prestazione occasionale, you receive a numbered receipt (ricevuta) by email and in your dashboard for every payment — keep them for your tax return. Invoice regimes: we'll ask you for your invoice before approving the payout.

9. Your Tax Duties (Short Version)

• Occasionale: we operate the 20% withholding and remit it to the tax authority; you declare the income as redditi diversi in your tax return, using our receipts and the yearly Certificazione Unica we issue.
• Forfettario / Ordinario: you invoice us as with any client.
• These are general notes, not tax advice — confirm your situation with your accountant. Keeping your overall tax and social-security position in order is, in any case, your own responsibility.

Questions?

Write to us on Discord or at info@spaghettishowdown.it. Happy drawing! 🎨