Ecommerce tax accountant services built on books that are right
Tax problems are usually bookkeeping problems discovered in April. Our ecommerce tax services keep the books tax-ready all year, coordinate sales tax, and work with your CPA or bring one in.
Every ecommerce tax horror story starts the same way: the return was built on bad books. Gross sales that don't match the 1099-K. COGS with no inventory support. Sales tax collected and booked as income. The CPA can only file what the books say, and by tax season it's expensive to say something different.
Our tax work starts twelve months before the deadline: accrual books where the 1099-K ties out, inventory valuation that survives scrutiny, and collected tax sitting in a liability account where it belongs. If you went looking for an ecommerce tax accountant because last April went badly, the books are almost always where the fix starts, and a tax accountant for online sellers is only as good as the file underneath them.
Sellers land here searching for an ecommerce accountant for tax season, ecommerce bookkeeping services that keep QuickBooks tax-ready all year instead of rebuilt every April, or a way to handle sales tax filing without a CPA on retainer. Prevention is the product.
The expensive ecommerce tax mistakes
1099-K mismatch letters
Marketplaces report your gross sales to the IRS. Returns filed off net deposits understate revenue, the computers notice, and the letter that follows costs more to resolve than a year of bookkeeping.
Sales tax treated as revenue, or ignored
Marketplace facilitator laws mean Amazon and Walmart remit most marketplace sales tax, but your Shopify sales are on you, and nexus can exist in states you've never visited via FBA warehouses. We keep the bookkeeping side clean and coordinate with filing tools for the rest.
Foreign owners missing Form 5472
A foreign-owned single-member US LLC that skips Form 5472 faces a $25,000 penalty per form, per year, even with zero US tax owed. We've seen sellers hit for $50,000 across two missed years. Our international practice exists for exactly this.
What we do every month
- Accrual books that tie to every 1099-K
- Year-end CPA package: statements, GL, inventory support
- Sales tax collected tracked as liability, always
- Nexus exposure flagged as your footprint grows
- Coordination with TaxJar, Avalara or your filing provider
- Form 5472/1120 coordination for foreign-owned LLCs
- Quarterly estimated-tax number support
- Direct line to your CPA, or an introduction to ours
We do the books-side of tax. Deliberately.
Bookkeeping firms that casually bolt on tax filing tend to do both halves averagely. We keep the boundary honest: we make the numbers right and tax-ready, coordinate filings, and partner with CPAs (yours or ours) for returns and strategy. You get specialists at both layers instead of one firm being mediocre at two jobs.
For international sellers, that coordination includes the non-resident stack: pro-forma 1120 with Form 5472, W-8 forms for platform tax interviews, and ITIN or EIN paperwork. Details on the international sellers page.
Ecommerce sales tax filing without a CPA
You don't need a CPA to file sales tax. Sales tax returns are a bookkeeping task, not a tax-strategy one: the state wants gross sales, exempt sales, taxable sales and tax collected for the period, by jurisdiction, and clean channel-level books already hold every one of those numbers. A filing tool like TaxJar or Avalara, or the state's own portal for a seller registered in one or two states, turns that into a return in minutes. What breaks the process is bad inputs: marketplace sales counted as your own, collected tax sitting in revenue, or a Shopify tax report that doesn't match the settlement data.
Where a CPA does earn the fee is the income tax return, the entity election and the audit letter. Our split follows that line. We keep the books tax-ready, produce the sales tax numbers by state each period, coordinate registrations and filings through your tool or ours, and hand the income tax side to a CPA who files from clean numbers. Sellers who want one firm for everything usually end up with a firm that's average at both halves.
Two situations still warrant a specialist before you file. You crossed a nexus threshold a year or more ago and never registered, where voluntary disclosure beats quiet registration. Or a state sent you a nexus questionnaire. Both are conversations we have weekly, and neither needs a CPA to start.
Related services
Closed by day 10, or 50% off
Your prior month is reconciled and delivered by the 10th business day, guaranteed in writing. Miss it and that month's fee is half price. No competitor guarantees anything.
You own your books
We work inside your QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite file, not ours. Leave any time and everything stays with you, diligence history included.
Exit-grade, always
Accrual books with landed-cost COGS and a maintained addback schedule. If a buyer or lender called tomorrow, your books would be ready.
Published pricing, no lock-in
Our full rate card is on the website and engagements run month-to-month. Every ecommerce-exclusive competitor hides pricing behind a sales call. We don't.
Ecommerce tax FAQs
Do you file my tax return?
We prepare tax-ready books and coordinate with a CPA who files, either yours or one from our partner network. That separation keeps both jobs done by specialists, and it means our monthly price isn't hiding a mediocre tax add-on.
Do I owe sales tax in other states?
Possibly. Marketplace sales are mostly handled by facilitator laws, but direct-channel sales create obligations where you have nexus, and FBA inventory placement can create it without you doing anything. We flag exposure as your books show your footprint growing.
What does my CPA get at year end?
Financial statements, general ledger, 1099-K reconciliation, inventory valuation support and answers to their questions, directly from us so you're not playing telephone in March.
I'm not a US resident but sell on US platforms. What do I file?
Typically a pro-forma 1120 with Form 5472 for a foreign-owned single-member LLC, plus whatever your home country requires. The 5472 penalty for skipping it is $25,000. See our international sellers page; this is a core practice area for us, not an exception.
How much do ecommerce tax services cost?
The books side is built into monthly service, from $1,250/mo with the rate card public on our pricing page. Return preparation is billed by the CPA who files, yours or one we introduce, typically a few thousand dollars for an ecommerce entity. Two specialist layers, each priced in the open, instead of one blended fee hiding a mediocre add-on.
Do I need an ecommerce tax accountant, or is my local CPA enough?
Keep your CPA; give them better inputs. Most tax-season pain comes from books that don't tie to the 1099-Ks or support COGS, not from the CPA's tax knowledge. If your CPA has never seen a settlement report, we cover that gap all year and hand over a clean file. And if you want a CPA who knows ecommerce cold, we'll introduce one.
Cash or accrual for ecommerce taxes?
Keep the books accrual and let your CPA pick the return's method; the IRS allows either for most sellers under roughly $30M in revenue. Accrual books convert down to a cash-basis return easily. Cash books can't convert up without a rebuild, and they misstate an inventory business all year no matter what the return says.
What triggers IRS attention for ecommerce sellers?
Mismatches, mostly: returns that don't tie to 1099-K gross, COGS with no inventory support, and year-over-year swings the filings don't explain. The matching is automated, so 'they probably won't notice' isn't a strategy. Books that reconcile to every form are the boring, effective defense, and boring is exactly the goal.
Can you get my books tax-ready before this year's deadline?
Usually, if you start now. A catch-up project runs one to three weeks for most sellers, and we can prioritize the periods your CPA needs first. If the calendar truly doesn't allow it, an extension filed on clean books beats an on-time return built on wrong ones; the extension is free, while the amended return is not.
How do quarterly estimated taxes work for an ecommerce seller?
Four payments a year, based on either 90% of this year's tax or the safe harbor of 100% of last year's (110% at higher incomes). The hard part isn't the rule; it's knowing your actual profit mid-year, which is precisely what monthly accrual books give you. We keep the estimate number current and your CPA blesses it.
We'll do last month's books free, and show you what your bookkeeper missed
The free Ecommerce Books Audit: connect read-only access and within 3 business days you get a clean month of books plus a 10-minute recorded teardown of every margin leak, COGS error and sales-tax risk we found. Keep it all, even if you never hire us.
- ✓ Books closed by day 10, guaranteed in writing
- ✓ Everything stays in your QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite file
- ✓ Published pricing, month-to-month, no lock-in