On an Amazon sale, some of the sales tax the customer paid is yours to report and some is withheld and remitted by Amazon itself as a marketplace facilitator. In Canada, for example, Amazon collects and remits provincial sales tax on your behalf in several provinces, while GST/HST on the same sale may still be yours. The Taxes screen separates the two, so you file what is yours and never file what Amazon already has.
Every figure comes from the tax lines in your settlements, which say who collected each amount. Nothing is estimated.
How to open it
Amazon ▸ Taxes.
Choosing the period
The shared period and marketplace bar sets the period. When no period is chosen, the screen opens on the latest settlement and says so: Showing the latest settlement number · dates · pick a period above to widen. Choose a period matching your filing period (a month or quarter), or pick one settlement under Any settlement to see one deposit.
The two filer cards
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| You file — Goes on your own returns | The total you report, and each named tax that makes it up (GST, HST, QST, PST and so on). |
| Amazon files — Withheld and remitted by Amazon — do not file again | The total Amazon kept and paid to the government, and each named tax. |
Nothing in this period. appears on a card with no tax.
What to file, by province and by tax
A table titled What to file, by province and by tax (or state for a US company). One row per ship-to region:
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
| code — name | The province, for example ON — Ontario. No province in red for orders with no ship-to province yet. |
| n orders · Amazon remitted amount | How many orders, and how much of the tax Amazon remitted itself. |
| amount (right) | Tax collected in that region. |
| Component lines | The collected tax split into the taxes it is made of, with each rate (for example GST 5% and PST 7%), using your own tax rates for that province. |
Click a region row to open its tax lines.
A component named (no rate configured) means your company has no tax rate set up for sales to that province. One named Collected on zero-rated destination means Amazon collected tax on a sale your rates treat as zero-rated. Fix your tax set-up under Tax rates and tax groups so the split is right.
Every tax type
The bottom card lists every combination of collector, region and tax type in the period:
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Icon | A receipt (green) for tax you collected; a storefront (blue) for tax Amazon collected or tax on Amazon's fees. |
| Title | Amazon's tax type, for example Tax, ShippingTax or MarketplaceFacilitatorTax-Principal. |
| Subtitle | Who collected it (seller, amazon or input), the region (or no province), and the number of lines. |
| Amount | The total; red when negative (refunds). |
input is the GST/HST Amazon charged you on its own fees. It is not tax you collected; it is an input tax credit you can claim back, and the settlement posts it to GST/HST Receivable (ITC).
Click a row to open its tax lines. No tax lines in this period. when there are none.
Tax lines
The drill-down behind any figure. It opens already filtered by what you clicked and keeps the period and marketplace, so its lines add up to the figure you clicked.
- Chips at the top show the filters: period, province, collector, marketplace.
- On the right: the number of lines and their total (with + when more lines remain to load).
- Each line shows the tax type and Amazon order number, then the posted date, ship-to province and city, marketplace and SKU, and the amount (red when negative).
- Load more fetches the next 50 lines.
How Amazon tax reaches your books
- Tax you collected is credited to your tax payable accounts by the settlement journal (or by the Amazon invoices, when invoices carry the revenue).
- Tax Amazon withheld arrives on the settlement as a negative line and is debited to the same tax payable account, so your net liability for it is zero. You do not remit it again.
- Tax on Amazon's fees is debited to GST/HST Receivable (ITC).
When you prepare your own return in Manage Sales Tax, the Amazon tax you collected is already in your tax accounts. Use the You file card to check the Amazon share, and the Amazon files card to explain why the tax Amazon remitted is not on your return.
Permissions
The Taxes screen needs its own tax view permission. Users without it see You do not have permission to view this.
Common problems
A "No province" row. Orders in the period have no ship-to province yet, so their tax cannot be assigned to a return. Amazon usually supplies the address within the hour; SeroBooks also works it out from the tax rate where it can. Check the Orders list for amber province dashes.
The You file total differs from my return. The screen covers Amazon only. Your return also includes other sales, and the Amazon figures here are dated by when Amazon posted each line. Pick the same dates as your filing period.
The Taxes screen shows a country notice instead of figures. The Amazon tax screens are available for Canadian and US companies.
Related articles
- Settlements (tax grouped by tax for one payout)
- Manage Sales Tax
- United States: nexus, use tax and marketplace sales
- How sales tax works in SeroBooks