Do you despise paying tax when using a dropshipper? Don’t feel isolated. We all do, especially when you consider the varying beginning international dropshipping tax rates and regulations.
Dropshipping taxes around the world can seem insurmountable to a first-time eCommerce business owner, but they become less of a headache with practice.
Sales tax, value added tax, income tax, payroll tax, where does it end? It’s understandable that many would-be dropshippers would give up because of the sheer number of unfamiliar terms associated with complying with tax regulations.
Let’s break it down into layman’s terms, shall we?
Do Dropshippers Pay Taxes?
To begin, we need to understand the difference between “collect” and “pay” when referring to taxes.
Customers in the United States or the European Union will be responsible for paying sales taxes and value-added tax, respectively.
Therefore, income taxes are the only kind of tax that you typically pay on your own.
Almost everywhere in the world requires its citizens to hand over a portion of their annual earnings to the government in the form of income tax.
Do Dropshippers Collect Taxes?
In many cases, dropshippers do not collect taxes, but this is not always the case. Whenever required to do so, dropshippers must collect a so-called consumption tax, which is ultimately paid by the final consumer at the rate set by their state or country.
In the United States, the sales tax that dropshippers impose at the point of sale (PoS) is known as a consumption tax. In the European Union (EU), the sales tax is called value added tax (VAT) and each member state sets its own rate.
The final consumer always foots the bill in both cases, with the resulting sums being deposited into the general coffers of the respective government.
Does Dropshipping Affect Your Taxes?
Income taxes are the only type of taxation that is affected by dropshipping.
In particular, if you operate as a reseller of goods without a formal business structure, you will be subject to income taxation under the rules of your home country.
This is the standard annual income tax payment to the government of the country in which you currently reside. Therefore, the income tax is based on your location, not the location of your customers.
The income tax rate for dropshipping can vary from country to country, as can the nature of your earnings and the structure of your business.
What Types of Taxes Are Associated with Dropshipping?
We usually mean one of these when we talk about dropshipping taxes:
Revenue sharing
Profit-and-loss accounting (US)
VAT (EU) (EU)
It is the final consumer who pays consumer taxes like sales tax in the United States and value-added tax in the European Union.
Income Tax
All of the money you make as a dropshipper or reseller must be reported and taxed in your home country. In fact, according to the law, you must pay taxes on any money you make selling goods or providing services.
Dropshipping generates income for its owners, but how that money is taxed varies from country to country. It’s typically due once a year or four times a year. However, in some nations, residents are required to make quarterly or even daily payments of their income taxes.
To whom do you remit payment?
Sales Tax (USA)
To operate legally, dropshippers in the United States are typically responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax.
States where a product or service is sold typically impose a sales tax. The emotional state of your customer. The sales tax, then, is levied by the state where the buyer resides, rather than the country in which you are located.
Thus, you’ll need to charge your buyer (or customer) a sales tax and remit that amount to the relevant government agency in the state where your customer resides.
Profit-and-loss accounting (USA)
Dropshippers in the United States only need to collect sales tax from customers in the states in which they have a physical presence (or “nexus”).
The only customers you’ll need to collect sales tax from if you’re based in the US are those who are also based in your home state. Furthermore, there is no nexus and no reason to collect a sales tax from a non-resident who resides in a different country.
Who receives the money: the government of the state where the client resides
VAT (EU)
The Value-Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax collected at the point of sale from final consumers in the European Union (EU), similar to sales taxes collected in the United States.
The value-added tax rate (VAT) is not standardized across the European Union (EU), but rather varies from country to country, with the highest possible rate falling between the ranges of 17 and 27%.
VAT (EU) (EU)
For purchases under EUR 22 made before July 2021, non-EU residents were exempt from charging VAT. However, this has been done away with thanks to the new EU VAT rules, so VAT is now charged on everything, no matter how cheap.
The new IOSS (import one-stop-shop) system allows non-EU residents to register and collect VAT automatically at point-of-sale.
Dropshippers based in the EU who conduct business within the EU must also collect VAT from their customers. As a result of the reforms, they now have a OSS (one-stop-shop) where they can register and pay taxes in the country of the customer without lifting a finger.
Who receives the payment: the nation of the buyer.
What Is a Sales Tax Nexus?
The term “tax nexus” is probably not new to dropshippers who maintain a physical presence in the United States or who sell to American consumers.
A nexus indicates residency in a specific US state. The obligation (or lack thereof) to collect sales taxes from customers within a state is dependent on whether or not the business has established nexus within that state.
You must collect taxes from customers in a state where you have nexus and remit those funds to that state’s tax agency. If it doesn’t, you don’t have to worry about collecting or remitting sales tax.
But how can you tell if you’ve established nexus in multiple states? In the following cases, nexus exists:
Wherever you call home or where your company has a physical presence; Wherever your employees are located; Wherever your warehouses and stockpiles are kept;
Where your in-state sales volume is above a certain threshold
If any of the above four scenarios sound familiar, it’s likely that you have nexus and are required to collect sales taxes in the relevant states.
Finally, what if you don’t even call the United States home? In the fourth scenario, if sales in a state exceed a certain threshold, even a non-US resident who has no offices, employees, or inventory in the state will have nexus there.
The current nexus threshold, above which you must collect and remit sales taxes, is either $100,000 in sales within the state or 200 transactions within the calendar year.
That’s why it’s possible if:
Your annual sales are over $200 000, with over half coming from just one large state;
If your annual sales are $100,000 or more, you’re in the luxury goods market.
Do I Need to Pay a Dropshipping Income Tax?
Yes. Income from dropshipping must be taxed at the end of the year in accordance with the law.
In the United Kingdom, for example, there is a threshold below which income tax is not required to be paid (currently 1,000 pounds).
However, in many regions, all business profits are subject to income taxation.
Does Shopify Report to the IRS?
Yes. No matter how much or little money a store makes, Shopify discloses their annual revenue.
Shopify will also issue a 1099-K tax form if your annual sales are over $20,000 or you process more than 200 transactions.
However, Shopify still reports your earnings to the IRS even if you don’t hit those levels, so you must still pay your income taxes regardless. Except in this case, you’ll have to deal with it instead of Shopify.
Do I Get a 1099 from Shopify?
When your Shopify store’s total sales reach $20,000 or 200 or more individual purchases are made, you will receive a 1099-K from Shopify.
Even if you don’t get the form, you still have to pay your taxes. As was previously mentioned, you must pay taxes on any and all money you receive, including money sent to you via Shopify payments or PayPal.
In addition, Shopify reports all earnings to the IRS for each store and account. In any case, they now know how much money you’re making. If you don’t pay your taxes on time, you could get in trouble with the government.
Does Shopify Automatically Collect Sales Tax?
Not automatically, but it is configurable. Shopify users who engage in drop shipping can have their stores set up to automatically collect sales taxes from customers who spend over a certain threshold; Shopify will then apply the appropriate rate based on the customer’s location.
Sales tax on Shopify
However, you can opt out of collecting sales tax from customers located in states where your business has no nexus.
You can rest assured that you are charging the appropriate amount of tax at the point of sale thanks to this helpful Shopify feature.
It’s important to note that Shopify does not handle tax filing or payment on your behalf.
How Do You Calculate Sales Tax when Selling Online?
Any sales made in states where you have nexus will be subject to sales tax at that state’s standard rate.
Let’s say a product costs $50, and the applicable tax rate is 4%, as it is in New York.
Your New York customer would owe you $2 in sales tax under this scenario. At Point of Sale, the customer will pay a total of $52.
What Are the Dropshipping Taxes in the USA?
eCommerce business owners in the United States need to be aware of two types of dropshipping taxes:
Sales tax Income tax
Each year’s worth of earnings must be reported and taxed.
If you have a physical presence in one or more states, you must collect sales taxes from your customers (if you have a physical presence or go over the minimum thresholds).
Where Can I Get Advice on Dropshipping Taxes for the USA?
In the United States, our first piece of advice for dropshipping taxes is to determine where you have nexus.
The next step is to look up the sales tax rate in the state or states where you have nexus. Larger states tend to have a more complicated tax structure that allows for varying tax rates even within the same state in different cities.
We’d like to emphasize that tax regulations and legislation aren’t set in stone and are subject to frequent revision. Keeping up with the latest news in this area is, therefore, essential.
Listed below are some potential solutions you could implement in order to remain in compliance if your situation is more complex:
Contact a dropshipping company that offers comprehensive services and can assist you in processing orders from around the world;
Consult a lawyer or tax expert in your area for guidance;
For the most up-to-date details, consult authoritative resources like the IRS.
What Are the Dropshipping Taxes in the EU?
There are two distinct dropshipping taxes in the European Union.
Price-Level Adjustment Taxes on Consumption
EU dropshippers, like their American counterparts, are subject to income tax on all sales revenue.
Furthermore, value-added tax (VAT) is the tax you charge consumers in European Union (EU) countries. If your customer (shipping address) is in the EU, you must charge VAT regardless of whether you are a resident of the EU or not.
How Do I Pay Taxes on Dropshipping Profits?
The income tax is paid on the money made from dropshipping. Income taxation is subject to varying regulations depending on where you live in the world.
Profit taxes on drop shipping
Income taxes are paid on a yearly basis in some countries, but on a quarterly basis or on a pay-as-you-go basis in others.
It’s not just the end result that varies internationally, but the process itself. However, in general, you must maintain income records and tax return documents throughout the fiscal year and submit them by the due dates.
How Do Tax Rates Work with Dropshipping in Multiple States?
Dropshipping to multiple states does not automatically give you nexus in those states. Typically, a drop shipper only has nexus in the state where their physical location is (business, warehouse, employees).
If you have made more than $100,000 or have had more than 200 transactions in a given state, you have nexus there and must collect sales tax.
If you do business in multiple states, you must charge and collect sales tax from your customers there.
Rates of several states’ dropshipping taxes
You need to check this for each state in which you have nexus, as tax rates vary by state.
Shopify allows you to automatically charge sales tax to customers in specific countries or states through the platform’s configuration options. Shopify will automatically determine the appropriate tax amount to add to the customer’s order based on their shipping address.
What Are Resale Certificates or Exemption Certificates?
In most cases of dropshipping, we know that three parties are involved:
The Patron (end buyer, consumer)
An example of a dropshipper (dropshipping store, online store)
This one’s the one who actually gets things done (supplier)
If both the customer and the dropshipper are located in the same state, then it stands to reason that the dropshipper must also collect sales tax.
But what if the supplier (fulfillment agent) does have a nexus in the customer state, but the dropshipper does not?
In that case, the supplier must charge you, the dropshipper, sales tax even though you couldn’t pass it along to the final consumer. Why? Since they are shipping the product to your customer even though they are selling it to you.
You, as the dropshipper, will be responsible for paying the sales tax to the supplier when the point of sale is the delivery address for the customer’s order.
Is there a way to stop working for nothing? Yes! Certificates for resale or tax exemptions serve this purpose.
Due to the nature of dropshipping, resale certificates exempt the purchaser from paying sales tax on products purchased for resale. It’s important to note that not all retailers and wholesalers recognize resale certificates.
If you’re drop-shipping from more than one supplier, you need to be especially cognizant of your tax responsibilities.
Final Words
All in all, we hope that our explanation of this topic has helped to dispel any lingering confusion. Understanding the tax implications of dropshipping will help you avoid trouble with the law and fulfill your tax responsibilities.
Some things to keep in mind from this manual are:
All annual profits are subject to income tax, which is paid to the government;
In the United States, a sales tax is a type of consumption tax that is collected from final customers in the states where a business has a physical presence.
VAT stands for Value Added Tax and is a consumption tax levied on all EU residents.
To establish nexus in a US state for long-distance sales, either $200,000 in annual sales or 200 separate transactions must occur;
