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Tax Deductions

There has got to be an easy way of seeing how much I paid in shipping, eBay fees, refunds, etc. for tax purposes.

 

I've read some work arounds to get all the information, but surely there's any easier way!

 

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated!

Message 1 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

Paypal has it all.

Message 2 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

@thehomeshops 

 

PayPal has reports that are available by categories if you have a business account.

 

If you have an individual account you will have to do a bunch of work to get that info added up.  It is there, but you will need to extract it.

 

I do not know if changing from an "individual" to a "business" account after the fact will make the reports available.

Message 3 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions


@buyselljack2016 wrote: ... I do not know if changing from an "individual" to a "business" account after the fact will make the reports available.

Yes, it will.  Upgrading to a business account takes just a few minutes.  In your PayPal account, you can then go to Reports > Financial Summaries >  "Financial Summary" and you can choose 2018 from the drop-down menu for the report interval.

https://business.paypal.com/merchantdata/reportHome

This will generate a summary of your PayPal activity for the year, including a line item for all payments received, for Fees (i.e., PayPal fees), and another line for all refunds sent. 

To see your payments to a specific vendor such as eBay shipping, go to your basic Summary page and click on "Payments sent," then do a search on "eBay Inc Shipping" for 2018. Unfortunately, PayPal no longer provides a total for this information (as they did with "Transaction finder") so you'll have to either add them up or export the data, to Excel.

Message 4 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

eBay fees too?

Message 5 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

You should be able to use your monthly invoices to get the total ebay fees paid.

disneyshopper
Volunteer Community Member

Message 6 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

You can use your monthly ebay invoices for the totals each month which include all fees, etc.

Then you can use PayPal for all transactions and shipping and PayPal fees. Just go to Reports where you can download all your activity done on paypal.

Message 7 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions


@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

@buyselljack2016 wrote: ... I do not know if changing from an "individual" to a "business" account after the fact will make the reports available.

Yes, it will.  Upgrading to a business account takes just a few minutes.  In your PayPal account, you can then go to Reports > Financial Summaries >  "Financial Summary" and you can choose 2018 from the drop-down menu for the report interval.

https://business.paypal.com/merchantdata/reportHome

This will generate a summary of your PayPal activity for the year, including a line item for all payments received, for Fees (i.e., PayPal fees), and another line for all refunds sent. 

To see your payments to a specific vendor such as eBay shipping, go to your basic Summary page and click on "Payments sent," then do a search on "eBay Inc Shipping" for 2018. Unfortunately, PayPal no longer provides a total for this information (as they did with "Transaction finder") so you'll have to either add them up or export the data, to Excel.


Excellent information and just to expand on that.  To get your Ebay fees, you can get that from your Ebay invoice.  You can print them or download them.


mam98031  •  Volunteer Community Member  •  Buyer/Seller since 1999
Message 8 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

search your emails,you have to play with search words but just find one and look "USPS Priority Mail" your eBay invoice also shows shipping,ebay fees pp fees in reports,i search my emails for everything i might have missed PP sends a receipt for all purchases on PP debit,your space used in your rental is deductible i use 25% of the house so 25% of all utilities,yard maintenance,rent.also your mileage i use about 40% (for instance)of my travel for business,new purchases,boxes ,bubble wrap . i admit eBay doesn't make it easy for regular people to do (invoices overlap etc.)i always start off with a list and check things off as i go you be surprised once you start how quick it goes (my first time was so stressful)
My list is........
pp fees:
ebay fees:
fedex:
sales:
refunds
usps
ace
staples
office depot
wal mart
uhaul (boxes)
mileage start: finish:
office space
utilities
rent
beginning inventory ending inventory
new purchases
Lawn
Message 9 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

search your emails,you have to play with search words but just find one and look "USPS Priority Mail" your eBay invoice also shows shipping,ebay fees pp fees in reports,i search my emails for everything i might have missed PP sends a receipt for all purchases on PP debit,

WOW, that is an incredible amount of work that you can just download a report for PP and get that information coupled with using the Ebay invoice for part of the information.  I can't imagine doing all that you do to gather this information for my business records.  

 

 


mam98031  •  Volunteer Community Member  •  Buyer/Seller since 1999
Message 10 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

I use a shipping program, that way the shipping fund top off amounts just go into my accounting program. At present time, I am shipping about 500 packages a year. I could not imagine trying to enter that into the accounting.

Message 11 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

"for anything i might have have missed" you missed that part
Message 12 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions


@moms**art**window** wrote:
"for anything i might have have missed" you missed that part

The Paypal reports are all inclusive of everything that has gone through that site.  While you may miss something, PP won't.  Their records have to balance with their own business records.  In all my years here, I've never known the PP reports to be out of balance.  I may like a different format, but all the info is there.

 

Because I like a different format, I drop the reports into Excel.  Then I arrange things how I like to see them and hide the columns that for me are not necessary.  Works great for me and many others I would suspect.

 

If I had to search my emails for my business records every year, it would drive me nuts.

 

If PP is your only source you are taking payments from right now, then your records are there.  That coupled with your Ebay invoice will get you all the information you need.

 

Your only exceptions would be if you accepted a different form of payment from someone or any sales you may have on another site that is not going through your PP account.


mam98031  •  Volunteer Community Member  •  Buyer/Seller since 1999
Message 13 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions


@thehomeshops wrote:

There has got to be an easy way of seeing how much I paid in shipping, eBay fees, refunds, etc. for tax purposes.

I've read some work arounds to get all the information, but surely there's any easier way!

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated!


I export my year's paypal activity into a CSV file. 

 

This gives me the buyer, the item, the item price, the shipping cost paid, and the paypal fees paid for every sale and every refund. 

 

And since I use PayPal to pay my eBay fees and buy my shipping, it also has all my monthly eBay fee payments and all the shipping I have purchased. 

 

After I download the CSV file, I load it into a spreadheet program (I use OpenOffice, which is free) and do a few quick sorts and cut-and-pastes to create separate tabs for sales/refunds, shipping purchases, and eBay fee payments. 

 

It takes me about 20 minutes each year to do this. 

Message 14 of 44
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Re: Tax Deductions

Ledger book and a pencil. Been doing it that way since the '80s. Works like a charm - but I'm not a high volume seller. I could see where it might not be doable for a high volume seller.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.


We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell
Message 15 of 44
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