The Shopify sales tax report can be daunting at first glance. But in this post, we're going to show you how to find it and break it down so you can understand it. This report will help you identify where you have or are approaching nexus, as well as how much sales tax you owe.
Where do you have nexus?
Some questions we commonly get about Shopify sales tax from online sellers are:
- Do I need to collect sales tax on Shopify?
- Does Shopify automatically pay sales tax?
- Why is Shopify not collecting sales tax?
Shopify is a fantastic platform for ecommerce, but it is important to remember that it is NOT a marketplace facilitator, like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Walmart. That means Shopify DOES NOT automatically collect sales tax for you, and it DOES NOT file and remit for you. Figuring out where you actually owe tax comes down to understanding sales tax nexus.
You also need to remember that you must register for a sales tax permit in a specific state BEFORE you can collect sales tax there. Each state has different economic thresholds, and you need to check regularly to see if you've crossed them. This is especially important now since states are becoming more aggressive towards online sellers as a result of a decrease in sales tax revenue from traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
What are these economic thresholds? We've done the research for you and recently updated our Sales Tax Compliance Checklist. The appendix has a chart that will show you the economic thresholds state-by-state. The download also goes into a LOT of detail about economic nexus and how to register for sales tax permits. We tried to answer as many commonly asked sales tax questions as we
So, how do you know if you've crossed the thresholds? At the end of this blog post, we're going to show you a handy trick to easily tell.
How to set up Shopify settings to collect sales tax
After you know what states you have nexus in and you've registered for the permits, you need to configure your Shopify tax settings to collect sales tax from your customers. After you've configured your tax settings and orders start coming in, you'll need to export your order data to analyze your sales tax obligations. Shopify's own order export instructions will walk you through generating that report by date range, since the exact steps can shift as Shopify updates its admin interface. Once you have the file, download it and open it in Excel, this is where the real analysis begins.
Cool Tip! Resize the table so you can see all the headers clearly. Select all the columns in the spreadsheet, then double-click the right border of any column header. This auto-fits every column to its content at once.
How to read your Shopify sales tax report
Now we'll walk through the columns, so you know what you're looking at. Many of them are self-explanatory, so we'll focus on the most important ones.
Name is the transaction ID number. It's important to note here that you're going to see duplicates. That is because every product a customer purchases creates a new line item within that order. So, if a customer purchases 5 items in the same order, they'll all have the same transaction ID number but will be listed on 5 separate lines.
Financial Status shows where it was paid or not. This may seem like an unnecessary column, but if it's unpaid, there was probably a problem with the payment method. You don't have to remit sales tax for unpaid orders. We'll talk more about this later.
The part we want to focus on most is the financial columns: Subtotal, Discount Amount, Shipping, Taxes, and Total.
The Subtotal is what the customer ended up paying for the product. This is “net of discount,” meaning after the discount is already taken off the original price. You can see the Discount Amount in column N.
Subtotal – Discount Amount + Shipping + Taxes = Total.
Going to the right will show columns describing the items the customer bought. Other columns show info related to shipping and taxability. Then, there are a bunch of columns related to billing and shipping address information. For sales tax purposes, we really want to focus on the shipping information.
Shipping Province is really important to pay attention to for nexus. FYI: Shopify calls it Shipping Province instead of Shipping State since other countries usually use the province terminology.
How to use a pivot table to remit sales tax correctly
The easiest way to analyze this report is with a pivot table to quickly and easily summarize & organize the data. I'm going to explain how to create a pivot table here, but if you'd rather watch Kexin, our sales tax guru, do it, watch Shopify Sales Tax Report | How to Find and Understand It. She starts explaining it at 7:16.
The first step is to add 4 columns at the beginning of the table so you can strip out the important information. Label the columns:
- Year
- Month
- Month Year
- Calculated Order Number (This will help you determine how many transactions you have in each state.)
Then add these functions to the first row after the headings:
- In the Year column, type =year() and then click the cell in the Paid at column for that same row to complete the formula, rather than typing the cell reference manually. This pulls the year from when the order was paid, so you can get an accurate count for your sales tax filing.
- In the Month column, type =month() and click the same Paid at cell for that row.
- In the Month Year column, click the Month cell you just created, type &" "&, then click the Year cell you just created. Make sure to add the space between the quotation marks so there is a space between the month and year in the data.
- In the Calculated Order Number column, you want to flag whether each row is a new order or a duplicate line item from an order you've already counted. Set up a formula that says: if the order ID (the Name column) in this row matches the order ID in the row above it, return 0. If the order ID in this row is blank, also return 0. Otherwise, return 1. This takes into account all the duplicate transaction ID numbers.
When you're finished the functions, select them all and drag them down to apply them to every order. All the rows should populate.
How to create a pivot table
Okay, you're all ready to create your pivot table. Click on the triangle in the top left-hand corner of the table. This will select the entire table. Then click Insert and then Pivot Table. It will pop up a box asking if you want to use the entire range you selected. Click OK.
A new screen is going to pop up. On the left is where the pivot table will appear. On the right, you'll see all the columns from the spreadsheet listed. You now get to decide how you want to set up the rows and columns and how you want to filter the information. To move columns into fields, just drag and drop from the list of columns or click the checkbox to the left. To find something quickly, type it into the search bar.
We suggest the following:
Filters (so you can manipulate the data to see only what you want to see):
- Month Year
- Financial Status
- Payment Method
- Shipping Country (so you can filter out non US-based transactions)
Rows
- Shipping Province (so you can see the information by state)
Values
- Subtotal
- Shipping
- Taxes
- Total
- Calculated Order Number
By default, your pivot table's numbers may show extra decimal places or no comma separators, which makes large totals hard to scan. To clean this up, select all the value columns except Sum of Calculated Order Number, click Home, then click the Comma Style button under Number formatting. That adds thousands separators and rounds to two decimals, so a number like 1234567.891234 displays as 1,234,567.89.
How to filter your data using the pivot table
Now that you've made a pivot table, you can filter it to get the information you need. You do this in the box in the top left corner.
- Click on Month Year so you can select the date range you want to analyze. (Ex. for Q4 of 2020, select 10 2020, 11 2020, and 12 2020). You'll notice that an option is 1 1900. That's not because any orders came during that time frame. It's because that's the default when a month and year are not listed. The order date is only listed once for each order. The rest of the boxes in that column, for that order, are blank. Unselect 1900.)
- Click on Financial Status. This is where you filter out Pending because those orders didn't go through.
- Click on Payment Method. Some of our clients want us to exclude manual orders. If you want that, too, Select All and then Unselect Manual.
- Click on Shipping Country. Select US to filter out international orders.
How to summarize data with your pivot table
You are finally ready to summarize your detailed sales tax report data for determining nexus and filing sales tax. Choose a state to start with. You'll see the Subtotal of all the orders and Sum of Calculated Order Numbers in that state. Compare it to the chart of economic thresholds in the appendix of the Sales Tax Compliance Checklist. (Remember that those are annual thresholds. So, if you're analyzing for one quarter of the year, multiply by 4 to see if you're getting close.)
These thresholds are something you really need to pay attention to. Some states require you to register as soon as you cross it. Others give you some leeway. It's important to know the difference. Why? Some states are getting pretty aggressive about sales tax for online sales, and falling behind can turn into a real sales tax audit. That detail for each state is also in the appendix of our download to help you protect yourself.
Note: Economic threshold for many states includes ALL the sales from ALL your channels. That means that you must add the info from all your channels for each state to determine nexus. This includes sales on marketplaces, like Amazon or Etsy, even if you don't have to collect and remit sales tax on all of it.
Also, many states have historically used requirements that look something like '$100,000 OR 200 transactions.' If you have less than $100,000, but over 200 transactions, you may still have nexus in that state, though that's becoming less common. Indiana, North Carolina, and Wyoming dropped the transaction-count test in 2024, Alaska followed in 2025, and Illinois eliminated its own transaction threshold as of January 2026. More states are expected to follow, so don't assume the 200-transaction number still applies everywhere.
Next, look at Sum of Taxes. If you see a number for that state, it is because you have determined you have nexus there and have turned-on sales tax collection for it. This is the amount you need to remit to the state's Department of Revenue.
Frequently asked questions
Does Shopify automatically collect and remit sales tax for me?
No. Unlike Amazon, Etsy, or Walmart, Shopify isn't a marketplace facilitator, so it doesn't automatically collect, file, or remit sales tax on your behalf. You need to configure your own tax settings and handle filing yourself.
Where do I find my Shopify sales tax report?
Use Shopify's order export tool (Orders > Export) to generate a report by date range. See Shopify's own order export instructions for the current steps, since the exact menu can shift as Shopify updates its admin. The report arrives by email, sometimes taking a few hours depending on order volume.
Why does my Shopify report show duplicate transaction IDs?
Because every product in a multi-item order gets its own line, so if a customer buys 5 items in one order, you'll see 5 rows with the same transaction ID.
What's the best way to analyze the Shopify sales tax report?
Build a pivot table. It lets you summarize subtotal, shipping, taxes, and order counts by state (Shipping Province), which is exactly what you need to compare against each state's economic nexus threshold.
Do marketplace sales count toward my economic nexus threshold?
Yes. Economic thresholds include sales from every channel combined, Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, and anywhere else you sell, even if a marketplace already collects tax on those sales for you.
What do I do once I see the "Sum of Taxes" for a state in my pivot table?
That figure is what you need to remit to that state's Department of Revenue, assuming you've already registered and turned on tax collection there.
Turn this report into an action plan
Sorting through your Shopify sales tax report is a real headache, we won't pretend otherwise. Not sure where you stand? Take our free Sales Tax Risk Assessment, 20 quick questions, about five minutes, for a personalized read on your exposure.
If you're approaching $1 million in annual revenue and would rather hand this off entirely, our sales tax team can take it over for you.
