How to get a sales tax report from Etsy

Sales tax can be a confusing and daunting task for even the most seasoned ecommerce business owner. And if you’re just getting started selling online, it can be downright scary. But don’t worry, it’s easier than you think once you know how.

In this blog post, we’ll talk about what sales tax is, how Etsy calculates and remits it, and show you step-by-step how to download a sales tax report from Etsy.

Ready? Let’s get started!

So, what is sales tax?

Let’s cover a little about what sales tax is first so you know exactly what you are looking for (if you are familiar with the way that sales tax works, feel free to skip the next couple of paragraphs).

As an Etsy seller, you are required to collect sales tax from customers that are based in the same state you are.

This is known as your “nexus” - you can have more than one nexus if you have more than one presence (i.e. a warehouse in one state and a shop in another) however for many handmade sellers their one and only nexus will be their home.

As an example, a craft seller who lives in Florida and has a shop on Etsy would be required to collect sales tax from customers who are also based in Florida.

To then illustrate how nexus is extended based on your business operations: let’s say the same craft seller also had a small stock of inventory held in a warehouse in Georgia. They would then be required to collect sales tax from customers in both Florida and Georgia.

Once you understand where you have nexus, you’ll need to ensure that you are registered to change sales tax in these states. This can be done by setting up some tax rules in Etsy for your shop - you’ll choose each state in which you have nexus and then create a sales tax rate for each one. You can also create tax rates at the zip code level, if this is required for your state.

Once you have set up your state sales tax rates, your customers will be automatically charged sales tax on your behalf.

For more details on state sales tax and how it applies to Etsy sellers, please see our blog post: State Taxes: A Handmade Sellers Guide

How to create a report of your Etsy sales taxes

Now that we have a good understanding of what sales tax is and how it works with Etsy, let’s look at how to generate a report of your sales tax collected.

Unfortunately, Etsy doesn’t provide your sales tax tallies in a lovely, easy to generate and download type of report. Boo!

And, although your Etsy Stats page gives you the sales total for a time period, but it’s not always correct and up to date. In particular, it doesn’t include any shipping amounts, which is important if your state taxes require shipping to be included.

To find your sales tax report figures, you’ll need instead to navigate to a slightly hidden away area of Etsy to generate a download file which you’ll then be able to use to filter out your nexus state sales.

This means you’ll need to do a little bit of legwork to get the numbers you need for your sales tax filings.

To do this, you’ll want to follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Shop Manager

You’ll want to go to your Shop Manager area. You can find this option at the top of any Etsy page.

2. Go to Settings

Once in your Shop Manager, navigate to Settings by clicking on the menu item

3. Navigate to your Options page

Now find the menu item called Options in the list that appears

4. Download Data

This is essentially your Advanced Settings area of Etsy. From here, you’ll want to click on the tab called Download Data

5. Orders Download

Scroll down to the area called Orders and select Orders from the dropdown menu called What type of CSV would you like to download?

For your quarterly sales tax return, you’ll need to download each of the months within the financial quarter as seperate files.

Alternatively, you can download all year to date sales by leaving the month dropdown blank - in this case, you’ll need to remember to to filter out all other months apart from the ones you need.

6. Download CSV

Click the Download CSV button. This will start the generation and download process to your computer. This file is called a CSV as it is essentially a text file that has been formatted with commas between each field (the acronym CSV is short for “comma separated values”). The great thing about these files is that they can be instantly opened in any spreadsheet program such as Excel, Numbers, Open Office or even Google Sheets.

7. Open in your spreadsheet

Open your file in your spreadsheet. From here, you’ll want to find the column called “Ship State” (M) and filter it to only show the nexus states you need to report on.

8. Locate your Sales Tax column

Now locate the “Sales Tax” (W). This column will show you how much in sales tax you collected from your customers on Etsy. You’ll want to sum this column to calculate your total tax for each state.

Remitting your Etsy Sales Tax

“Remitting” means to pay or submit. When it comes to sales tax, “to remit” means to pay the state the sales tax you’ve collected from your customers. Each state has different requirements for how and when sales tax should be paid.

Generally, states require that sales tax be paid either monthly, quarterly, or annually. You’ll want to check in with your state’s tax agency to see which schedule they require.

As of 2024, Etsy now collects and remits sales tax on your behalf in the following 14 US states:

• Alabama
• Colorado
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota

This means that if you sell to customers in any of these states and have your taxes set up correctly, Etsy will automatically calculate, collect and remit the tax on your behalf.

Depending on your state’s particular requirements, you may need to also submit a return to indicate the amount of sales tax you have collected and the amount that has been remitted by the third party (which in this case is Etsy).

For all other states, you’ll need to ensure that you are collecting state sales tax from customers and then file a return with the state yourself at the end of each tax period.

Using software to create an Etsy sales tax report

If you find the process of downloading and filtering your Etsy sales data to be tedious, time-consuming, or just downright confusing, you’re not alone. The good news is that there are software programs out there that can automate this entire process for you.

Craftybase is one such program. With Craftybase, you can connect your Etsy shop and have all of your sales data imported automatically. This includes information on every sale, product, customer, coupon, and more.

Once your data is in Craftybase, you can run powerful reports that show you exactly how much sales tax you collected from each state. You can also see a running total of how much you need to remit to each state - easy peasy!

If you’re ready to take the headache out of sales tax, sign up for a free 14-day trial of Craftybase today.