Run a Shopify tax report
Shopify does not file your sales tax returns for you, but it does keep the numbers you need to file them. The United States sales tax report breaks sales and tax down by state, then by jurisdiction, then by individual transaction. This tutorial runs that report for a month and reconciles the totals against the Taxes finance report.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 5 minutes read
The worked example
| Report | United States sales tax report, October 2026 |
| California sales | $1,240.00, tax $102.30 |
| Texas sales | $860.00, tax $71.05 |
| Total sales | $2,100.00 |
| Total tax collected | $173.35 |
| Export limit | One month of data per CSV |
Download the record: tax-report-reconciliation.csv (92 bytes).
A reconciliation sheet for the report in this tutorial, with sales and tax by state and the totals that must match the Taxes finance report. The sales column sums to $2,100.00 and the tax column sums to $173.35.
1Open Reports
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports. This is where every finance report lives, including the tax reports.
2Open the United States sales tax report
Select the United States sales tax report. The report displays a detailed summary of the sales and taxes information for your orders in the United States. Only sales made to customers with shipping addresses located in the United States are included. If you use Shopify Tax in the United States, you can access this report.
3Read the state overview
The default view for the report is the state overview. It shows a summary of sales and taxes collected in each state you made sales to. In this tutorial that is California at $1,240.00 of sales with $102.30 of tax, and Texas at $860.00 of sales with $71.05 of tax.
4Drill into a jurisdiction
Click a state to access the jurisdiction view, which provides a summary of sales and taxes for a specific state. The jurisdiction report breaks out each tax jurisdiction and rate, such as state, county, city, or special district, and aggregates the sales and tax collected for each jurisdiction and rate combination. Use this view when you prepare a sales tax return yourself.
5Drill into transactions
Click View Transactions to access the detailed transaction report, which displays itemized transactions with more detailed data. Use this when you need line-item detail for every tax line on every order.
6Export the CSV
Click Export to download the report as a CSV file. A CSV file exported from this report has a maximum amount of one month of data. To export data for more than one month, export a CSV from the Taxes finance report instead. The report displays a maximum of 1,000 rows on screen; the export gives you all the data.
The arithmetic
They are the example report rows in this tutorial, and the totals must match the Taxes finance report for the same period:
| State | Sales | Tax collected | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $1,240.00 | $102.30 | 8.25% |
| Texas | $860.00 | $71.05 | 8.26% |
| Total | $2,100.00 | $173.35 | 8.25% |
The effective rates are the tax divided by the sales for each row: $102.30 divided by $1,240.00 is 8.25%, and $71.05 divided by $860.00 is 8.26%. They are not the rates Shopify charged; the report shows the tax collected, and the rate is what you get when you divide it by the sales.
Held at the counter
The on-screen report stops at 1,000 rows. The United States sales tax report displays a maximum of 1,000 rows. You can export a comma separated values file to access all data in the report, so export before you conclude a busy month is complete.
One CSV covers one month. A CSV file exported from this report has a maximum amount of one month of data. To export data for more than one month, export a CSV from the Taxes finance report instead, or export each month separately and add them up.
Marketplace sales are not in the country view. Orders made through third-party marketplaces, such as Amazon, are not included in the country view of the report. If you sell on a marketplace as well, those sales need their own report from that marketplace.
Sources
- Tax reports — Shopify's help pages: the state, jurisdiction, and transaction views, the jurisdiction report for preparing a return, and the one-month CSV limit.
- Finance reports — Shopify's help pages: the United States sales tax report description, the 1,000-row display limit, and the one-month CSV export limit.