Tax help for Etsy, eBay, Amazon and Shopify sellers
You run a real business, even if it lives on a laptop and in your spare room. We handle the tax side so you can keep listing, packing and shipping.
Nothing is due today. Personal returns start at $250.
Selling online means your money passes through somebody else's system before it reaches you. The platform takes its fees, often collects the sales tax, and when reporting applies it sends the IRS a gross number that looks nothing like what hit your bank. Add stock sitting in your closet and a shipping cost on every single order, and the return only comes out right if the person preparing it actually understands how a shop works.
What online sellers can usually deduct
Ordinary and necessary costs of your work. Rules and dollar limits change year to year, so we confirm every one of these against the current year when we prepare your return.
Cost of goods sold
What you paid for the products you sold, the raw materials if you make what you sell, and the freight your supplier charged to get it to you. This belongs in its own section of the return, not mixed in with supplies.
You deduct an item's cost in the year it sells, not the year you buy it. Cases of stock still sitting in your closet on December 31 are not a deduction yet. There is a simpler method open to some smaller sellers depending on their receipts, so ask before you assume either way.
Marketplace and seller fees
Etsy listing and transaction fees, eBay final value and store subscription fees, Amazon referral fees, your Shopify plan and the paid apps bolted onto it. These are ordinary business expenses.
Your Form 1099-K reports gross sales, before the platform took any of this out. If you report only the deposits that reached your bank and never claim the fee deduction, your sales figure will not match the form the IRS already has, and you can end up answering a notice about the difference.
Payment processing fees
Etsy Payments, Shopify Payments, PayPal, Stripe, the Square reader you use at a market, and the currency conversion charges on international orders. They are deductible even though you never wrote a check for them.
These fees usually come out before the payout lands, so they never show up as a charge in your bank feed. They have to be picked up off the platform reports instead.
Shipping and packing supplies
Postage and labels, boxes, poly mailers, bubble wrap, tape, tissue paper, the thermal label printer and its label rolls, a shipping scale, and the branded stickers or thank you cards you tuck in the box.
Shipping money a buyer pays you is income, and the label you buy is an expense. Record both. Netting one against the other buries a deduction and makes your platform reports impossible to reconcile.
FBA and storage fees
Amazon fulfillment and monthly storage fees, long term storage charges, prep and labeling services, removal and disposal orders, and returns processing. Rent on an offsite storage unit or warehouse space for your stock goes here too.
Removal and disposal fees are still a business expense even when the inventory itself never sold. The unsold goods and the fee you paid to get rid of them are two separate items, and they are handled in two different places.
Sourcing trips and mileage
Miles to thrift stores, estate sales, auctions, pallet liquidators, your supplier and the post office. Keep the date, the miles and the purpose of each trip, then use the standard mileage rate the IRS sets for that year or your actual vehicle costs.
A drive is deductible for its business purpose, not for leaving the house, and personal errands folded into the same trip do not count. If your home is not the principal place of your business, the drive from home to your first stop can be commuting, which is never deductible. A lunch you eat by yourself while sourcing near home is not a business meal, and meals on an overnight sourcing or trade show trip are deductible only in part under the business meal rules.
Home packing and studio space
The part of your home the business actually uses: the packing station, the craft or sewing room, the photo corner, the desk where you list. You can use the simplified square footage method or your actual costs such as rent, utilities and renters insurance.
The general home office rule requires that the space be used regularly and only for business, so the dining table you eat dinner at does not qualify. There is a separate rule for space used regularly to store inventory or product samples when your home is the only fixed location of your selling business, and that one does not require exclusive use. Measure the space before your appointment.
Product photo setup
Lights, softboxes, backdrops, risers, a tripod, a light tent, flat lay props, a dress form or mannequin, editing software, and the business share of the camera or phone you shoot listings with.
Clothing that is suitable for everyday wear is not deductible, even when you bought it for the shoot or you model your own pieces. Apparel you bought to resell is a different thing entirely, that is inventory.
Seller software and apps
Cross listing tools, repricers, keyword and product research tools, inventory and order management, design software, your email marketing platform, and bookkeeping software connected to your shop.
Only the business share of a subscription you also use personally is deductible, and a plan you pay for but never use for the shop is not deductible at all.
Ads and promoted listings
Etsy Ads, eBay Promoted Listings, Amazon Sponsored Products, Google and Meta ads, affiliate and referral payouts, and paid placement in gift guides or newsletters.
Product you send free to an influencer or give away in a promotion comes off at what the item cost you, never at the retail price you would have charged. Tell us which sends were promotion and which were personal gifts, because gifts to an individual are capped by law at a set amount per person per year.
Equipment you make with
Heat press, sublimation and label printers, cutting machine, embroidery or sewing machine, kiln, resin and casting gear, 3D printer, work table, and the shelving and bins that hold your stock.
Larger purchases may be written off in the first year or spread over several years, depending on the elections available to you and how the equipment is used. Tell us the date you started using it, and ask before you assume the whole cost lands in one year.
Returns, refunds, chargebacks
Refunds you issued, partial refunds for items that arrived damaged, chargebacks you lost, and reversed platform fees. These reduce the sales figure you report on your business schedule.
Sales you later refunded are still buried inside the gross total on your Form 1099-K, so they have to be backed out on the return. If a returned item goes back into sellable stock, it belongs in inventory again rather than in cost of goods sold.
An online shop generally starts out reporting on Schedule C, and the S-corp conversation only earns its keep once your net profit is steady enough that reasonable owner payroll plus the extra filings still leave you ahead, which is a calculation we will show you before you change anything.
What to bring us
You do not need all of it to start. Send what you have and your checklist shows what is still open.
- Year end sales reports from every platform you sold on, such as the Etsy CSV, the eBay seller report, the Amazon Seller Central date range summary and your Shopify reports
- Every Form 1099-K you received, from marketplaces and from payment processors, including the ones you think are duplicates
- Any Form 1099-NEC or Form 1099-MISC for affiliate income, brand partnerships or sponsored posts
- What your inventory cost at the start of the year, what you spent on goods during the year, and what was still unsold at the end
- Supplier and wholesaler invoices, plus receipts or notes from thrift, estate and auction sourcing
- Shipping totals from Pirate Ship, ShipStation, your carrier account or Click-N-Ship, kept separate from the shipping income buyers paid you
- Fee reports showing marketplace fees, FBA and storage fees, and payment processing fees for the full year
- Your mileage log with dates, miles and the purpose of each trip
- Home office figures: total square footage of the home, the square footage the business uses, and your rent or mortgage interest, insurance and utilities
- Receipts for equipment bought during the year with the date you started using it, any estimated tax payments you made, and last year's return if this is your first year with us
What trips people up
Reporting only the money that landed in your bank account.
Start from the gross figure on the Form 1099-K, then deduct marketplace fees, processing fees, shipping labels and refunds as their own lines. Same profit, and it actually ties to the form the IRS already has.
Writing off a big inventory buy in the year you bought it.
Track what you paid, what sold and what is left. The cost generally moves onto the return as the items sell, which means a heavy buying year does not by itself create the deduction you were counting on.
Counting sales tax the marketplace collected as your income.
Under state marketplace facilitator rules, the platform is often required to collect and remit that tax for you, and in that case the money was never yours. Keep it out of income and out of expenses, and we will confirm channel by channel which of your sales are covered.
Running the shop through your personal bank account and card.
Open a separate account and card for the business. It makes your deductions easier to support if anyone ever asks, and it cuts the time we spend sorting your year.
Waiting until April, because nobody withholds tax from a payout.
Plan on quarterly estimated payments once the shop is profitable. We set the amount with you from your real numbers so you are not caught off guard.
What it costs
Our published list, the same one everyone sees. Prices marked "from" are starting points, and your exact number is confirmed in writing before any work begins.
$0 is due today. You pay when you sign, or you can have your fee come out of your refund, so it can be $0 out of pocket.
Questions we get from your trade
My 1099-K is much higher than what I actually made. Is it wrong?+
It is measuring something different from what you take home. That number is gross: it includes the fees the platform took, the shipping the buyer paid, and sales you later refunded. We reconcile it to your real profit and show the difference on the return.
I never got a 1099-K. Do I still have to report the sales?+
Yes. The reporting thresholds have changed more than once in recent years, so whether a form shows up is not the test for whether income is taxable. Bring your platform reports either way, since they are more complete than the form anyway.
I sold off my own old clothes and furniture on eBay. Is that taxable?+
Generally, personal belongings sold for less than you paid produce no taxable gain, and the loss is personal so you cannot deduct it. If you sold something for more than you paid, the gain is taxable. Tell us if a 1099-K arrived for those sales, because it still has to be addressed on the return.
Do I need an LLC or an S-corp for my shop?+
An LLC is a state law matter and by itself it does not change your federal tax. A single member LLC with no election files on Schedule C by default. The S-corp question is worth running only when profit is consistently high, and we will show you the math rather than guess.
Do I owe sales tax in every state I ship to?+
For sales made on a marketplace, the platform is often the one required to collect and remit under state marketplace facilitator rules. Sales through your own Shopify or direct site are your responsibility once you cross a given state's economic nexus rules, and those rules and their thresholds differ by state and change. We look at where you genuinely have an obligation instead of registering you everywhere.
My inventory lives in my apartment. Does that count as a home office?+
There is a rule for space used regularly to store inventory or product samples when your home is the only fixed location of your selling business, and unlike the general home office rule it does not require the space to be used only for business. Measure the storage area and bring the number with you.
Let us take the tax part off your plate.
Tell us what you need and see your price. A real person on your team replies within one business day.