How to Find Sales Tax Report on Shopify for Growth

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Why Sales Tax Compliance is Critical for Your Shopify Store
3. How to Find Sales Tax Report on Shopify: The Core Options
4. Step-by-Step: Exporting Your Data for Accurate Filing
5. Analyzing the Data: How to Use a Pivot Table
6. The Tevello Advantage: Seamless Reporting for Digital Products
7. Managing Growth with Predictable Costs
8. Improving the Customer Experience Through Unified Data
9. Technical Considerations: Shopify Payments and 1099-K Forms
10. Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Digital Business
11. Troubleshooting Common Tax Report Issues
12. Using Your Tax Data for Marketing Insights
13. FAQs
14. Conclusion

Introduction

Did you know that the global e-learning market is projected to reach a staggering $325 billion by 2025? For e-commerce entrepreneurs, this represents a massive opportunity to diversify beyond physical inventory and build sustainable, high-margin revenue streams. However, with great growth comes great responsibility—specifically in the realm of tax compliance. As your store scales and you begin reaching customers across different states and countries, the "tax man" eventually comes knocking. Failing to understand your tax obligations isn't just a minor administrative oversight; it can lead to hefty penalties that eat directly into your hard-earned profits.

At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that merchants should have full control over their business, and that includes having a crystal-clear understanding of their financial data. Whether you are selling physical goods, digital courses, or community memberships, knowing how to navigate your Shopify tax data is essential for long-term stability. This post is designed to be your definitive guide on how to find sales tax report on shopify, interpret the data, and use those insights to grow your business with confidence. We will cover the specific reports available, the steps to export your data, and how to analyze your "nexus" to ensure you are always on the right side of the law.

By the end of this article, you will not only know where to click to find your tax information but also how to use that data to make smarter business decisions. We’ll show you how a unified approach to physical and digital sales can simplify your back-office operations and help you build a more resilient brand.

Why Sales Tax Compliance is Critical for Your Shopify Store

Before we jump into the "how," we must understand the "why." Many merchants assume that because Shopify is an all-in-one platform, it automatically handles every aspect of tax filing. This is a common misconception. While Shopify provides incredibly robust tools to calculate and collect taxes at checkout, the responsibility for filing and remitting those taxes to the correct authorities rests squarely on your shoulders.

Understanding Economic Nexus

In the past, you only had to worry about sales tax in states where you had a physical presence (like a warehouse or an office). However, since the landmark South Dakota v. Wayfair decision, most states have implemented "economic nexus" laws. This means if you surpass a certain threshold of sales or transactions in a state—even if you have no physical presence there—you are legally required to collect and remit sales tax.

For a merchant selling fitness equipment who decides to add a "Home Workout Masterclass" as a digital upsell, these thresholds can be reached faster than expected. This is where Tevello’s value shines; because we offer a Native Shopify Integration, every digital sale is processed through your existing Shopify checkout. This ensures that your sales tax reports remain unified, covering both your physical products and your digital learning content in one single source of truth.

Protecting Your Profit Margins

Ignoring tax reports can lead to "back taxes," where a state determines you should have been collecting tax for the last two years. If you didn't collect it from the customer at the time of sale, that money comes directly out of your pocket. By regularly checking your reports, you can identify when you are approaching nexus in a new state and register for a permit before it becomes a liability.

How to Find Sales Tax Report on Shopify: The Core Options

Shopify offers several different reports depending on your location, your tax settings, and the level of detail you need. Here is how to navigate to the primary tax reporting sections in your admin dashboard.

1. The Taxes Finance Report

This is the most common starting point for most merchants. It provides a high-level summary of the sales taxes that were applied to your sales during a specific period.

• How to access it: Log in to your Shopify Admin, go to Analytics, then click on Reports. Scroll down to the Finances section and select Taxes.
• What it tells you: This report shows a breakdown of taxes by country and region (state/province). It is excellent for a quick glance at how much tax you have collected globally.

2. The United States Sales Tax Report (Shopify Tax)

If you are a U.S.-based merchant using the "Shopify Tax" engine, this report is your best friend. It is significantly more detailed than the general Taxes report.

• How to access it: Navigate to Settings > Taxes and duties. Within the United States section, you will find a link to the U.S. Sales Tax Report.
• What it tells you: This report provides a breakdown at the state, county, and local tax jurisdiction levels. This is vital because many states require you to report taxes not just for the state as a whole, but for specific districts or cities.

3. Total Sales by Order Report

Sometimes, you or your accountant need the raw data to perform a custom analysis. The Total Sales by Order report is the best way to get a CSV file that includes every detail imaginable.

• How to access it: Go to Analytics > Reports and find Total sales by order under the Sales section.
• What it tells you: This report includes order amounts, tax amounts, POS locations, billing addresses, and shipping locations. This is the report you will likely export to Excel to create a pivot table for your quarterly filings.

Step-by-Step: Exporting Your Data for Accurate Filing

For many store owners, simply looking at a dashboard isn't enough. You need the data in a format that you can manipulate. Follow these steps to pull a comprehensive data set:

1. Select Your Date Range: Whether you are filing monthly, quarterly, or annually, ensure your date filter in the Orders or Analytics section is set correctly.
2. Filter by Financial Status: When pulling reports for tax purposes, you generally want to filter for "Paid" orders. You do not owe sales tax on orders that were cancelled or never paid for.
3. Export as CSV: Click the Export button. If you have a large volume of orders, Shopify will email the file to you.
4. Check for Duplicates: Remember that in a Shopify order export, a single order with multiple line items (e.g., a physical book and a digital course) will appear on multiple rows. When calculating "Total Transactions" for nexus purposes, you’ll need to account for this.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. This allows you to scale your digital offerings without worrying about how a second platform might complicate your tax exports.

Analyzing the Data: How to Use a Pivot Table

Once you have your CSV file, the real work begins. A pivot table in Excel or Google Sheets is the most efficient way to organize thousands of rows of data into a format your accountant will love.

Organizing Your Columns

When you open your export, focus on these key columns:

• Shipping Province/State: This tells you where the tax is owed.
• Tax 1 Value, Tax 2 Value: These represent the actual dollar amounts collected.
• Financial Status: Filter for "Paid."
• Total Sales: The gross amount of the transaction.

Creating the Pivot Table

1. Highlight all data in your spreadsheet.
2. Select Insert > Pivot Table.
3. Set Shipping Province as your "Rows."
4. Set Taxes and Total Sales as your "Values."
5. (Optional) Add Date as a "Filter" to double-check your reporting period.

This will give you a clean list of every state you sold into, the total sales in that state, and the total tax collected. Compare these totals against state thresholds to see if you have reached economic nexus.

The Tevello Advantage: Seamless Reporting for Digital Products

One of the biggest challenges for Shopify merchants is the fragmentation of data. If you use a third-party platform to sell your courses or memberships, those sales often live in a separate database. This makes "how to find sales tax report on shopify" only half of the puzzle, forcing you to manually merge spreadsheets from different platforms.

At Tevello, we believe merchants should own their customer data and brand experience. This is why we created a solution that keeps customers on the merchant's own URL, rather than redirecting them to a third-party platform. Our Native Shopify Integration means that when a customer buys a course, it’s just another line item in your Shopify admin.

Real-World Application: The "Hybrid" Merchant

Consider a merchant selling specialized gardening tools. By adding an "Organic Gardening 101" course using Tevello, they are generating revenue from both physical and digital goods within the same ecosystem. When it’s time to file taxes, they don’t have to hunt for digital sales reports on a different site. Everything is captured in the standard Shopify Finance reports.

This approach is exactly what helped one creator achieve massive success. By how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses, they proved that a unified storefront is the most efficient way to scale. They didn't just sell more; they simplified their administrative burden by keeping everything native.

Managing Growth with Predictable Costs

As your store grows and your tax reports become more complex, the last thing you want is a software bill that fluctuates based on how many students you have. Many course platforms charge "per-user" fees or "success fees," taking a percentage of every sale. This effectively acts as an additional "tax" on your business growth.

We take a different approach. Tevello offers The Unlimited Plan for a flat fee of $29.99 per month. We are committed to providing predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees. We charge 0% transaction fees, meaning you keep 100% of what you earn after the standard Shopify payment processing fees.

Our Unlimited plan includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth.
• Community features (profiles, member directories, social feeds).
• Drip content scheduling and quizzes.

By securing a fixed cost structure for digital products, you can focus your budget on marketing and customer acquisition rather than worrying about escalating software costs as you hit your next sales milestone.

Improving the Customer Experience Through Unified Data

Beyond just making your life easier at tax time, keeping your digital products within Shopify creates a superior experience for your customers. One of the most common complaints in the e-learning world is "fragmented logins." A customer buys a product on Shopify but then has to create a completely different login for a separate course platform. This leads to forgotten passwords and a spike in customer support tickets.

By keeping customers at home on the brand website, you eliminate this friction. They use the same account for their physical orders and their digital content. This unified login that reduces customer support friction is a game-changer for brand loyalty.

We’ve seen this work for major creators who were struggling with legacy systems. For instance, migrating over 14,000 members and reducing support tickets became possible only after moving to a system that integrated directly with Shopify's core architecture. By solving login issues by moving to a native platform, merchants can refocus their energy on creating content rather than resetting passwords.

Technical Considerations: Shopify Payments and 1099-K Forms

When you are looking for tax reports, you might also be looking for your Form 1099-K. This is different from a sales tax report. While sales tax reports help you tell the state how much you collected, the 1099-K is what Shopify (and other payment processors) sends to the IRS to report how much you earned.

• Who gets one? Generally, if you process more than a certain threshold (currently $20,000 and 200 transactions, though this is subject to change based on IRS regulations), Shopify Payments will issue a 1099-K.
• Where to find it: Go to Settings > Payments. In the Shopify Payments section, click on View payouts, then click Documents.

Having all your digital and physical revenue flowing through Shopify Payments makes this process incredibly clean. You won't have to reconcile multiple 1099-K forms from different course hosting sites. This is a core part of the all the key features for courses and communities that we offer; we don't just provide a player for your videos, we provide a business infrastructure that works with your existing financial tools.

Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Digital Business

While we provide the tools to "turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse," it is important to remember that tools are only one part of the equation. We do not suggest that you will make six figures in your first week just by installing an app. Instead, we focus on how Tevello amplifies your existing efforts.

Selling digital products is a long-term strategy to:

1. Diversify Revenue Streams: You aren't solely dependent on physical supply chains.
2. Increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): A customer who buys a physical product is the perfect candidate for a digital "how-to" course.
3. Build Recurring Revenue: Membership models provide stability that one-off physical sales cannot match.

By choosing a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members, you ensure that as your LTV grows, your overhead stays flat. This is the hallmark of a healthy, scalable e-commerce business.

Troubleshooting Common Tax Report Issues

Even with the best tools, you might run into issues when trying to find or interpret your sales tax reports. Here are a few common scenarios:

"Shopify is not collecting tax in a specific state."

If your report shows $0 for a state where you know you have nexus, check your Taxes and duties settings. You must manually tell Shopify which states you are registered in. Shopify does not automatically assume you have nexus; you must "Collect Sales Tax" by entering your tax ID for that state.

"The report shows taxes collected, but I haven't registered yet."

This can be a dangerous situation. If you are collecting tax but haven't registered with the state, you are effectively holding "state money" without a legal account to remit it to. If this happens, stop collecting immediately, register for your permit, and consult a tax professional about "voluntary disclosure" to avoid penalties.

"International taxes are missing."

If you sell globally, ensure you have set up your Markets and Duties correctly. VAT and GST have different reporting requirements than U.S. sales tax. The Taxes Finance report will show these, but you may need to export your orders to see the specific VAT registration numbers for European or UK orders.

Using Your Tax Data for Marketing Insights

Your sales tax reports are more than just a compliance tool; they are a map of your brand's popularity. If you see a surge in sales in a state like Texas or Florida, that is a clear signal to increase your ad spend in those regions.

Furthermore, if you are seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify, you can track which regions are most interested in your digital vs. physical products. You might find that while your physical products sell well in urban areas, your digital courses have a huge following in more remote regions where shipping is expensive. This data allows you to tailor your marketing message to the specific needs of each audience.

FAQs

1. Does Shopify automatically file my sales tax returns?

No. Shopify provides the reports and calculates the tax at checkout, but you are responsible for filing the returns and remitting the money to the respective state or local tax authorities. You can use apps or services like TaxJar or Avalara that integrate with Shopify to automate the filing process, but Shopify does not do this natively.

2. Can I sell courses and physical products in the same Shopify store?

Absolutely. This is the primary reason merchants choose Tevello. By selling both through a single Shopify store, you maintain a unified customer database, a single checkout process, and consolidated sales tax reports. This reduces administrative overhead and provides a better user experience.

3. Do digital products have different sales tax rules?

Yes. The taxability of digital products (like online courses and memberships) varies significantly by state. Some states tax them as "Digital Goods," some tax them as "Services," and others do not tax them at all. You should consult a tax professional to ensure your Shopify tax overrides are set correctly for your specific digital offerings.

4. How do I handle refunds in my sales tax report?

When you issue a refund in Shopify, the tax portion of that refund is also recorded. Most Shopify tax reports will show "Net Tax," which is the total tax collected minus any tax refunded. It is important to use the "Net" figures when filing your returns so you don't overpay the state for sales that were ultimately returned.

Conclusion

Understanding how to find sales tax report on shopify is a fundamental skill for any growing merchant. Whether you are navigating the complexities of economic nexus or simply trying to get your data ready for your accountant, the tools within Shopify are designed to give you the clarity you need. By taking a proactive approach to your tax data, you protect your business from unnecessary risks and free up your mental energy to focus on what you do best: creating value for your customers.

At Tevello, we are proud to support thousands of merchants who are diversifying their businesses with digital products. We believe that by keeping your business native to Shopify, you gain a massive advantage in data integrity, customer experience, and operational simplicity. Our "Unlimited Plan" ensures that as you scale from your first ten students to your first ten thousand, your software costs remain predictable and your profit margins remain high.

Ready to take your store to the next level? You can start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now without paying a cent until you're ready. Experience the power of a 0% transaction fee model and see how easy tax season can be when all your sales live in one place.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. We can't wait to help you install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and start your journey toward becoming a digital learning powerhouse.