Shopify tax advice in Spain for your own online store
Shopify provides the infrastructure for your own store. To review its taxes, we need to identify the seller, product, customer and the goods' journey. Selling through Shopify does not by itself determine which VAT to apply or which returns to file.
This page focuses on Shopify reports and receipts. If you combine several channels and need to organise the business as a whole, see our eCommerce accounting service. If you also sell using FBA logistics, our Amazon accounting service covers its specific settlements and stock movements.
Moraleda Gestión is a B2B advisory firm providing digital support for businesses throughout Spain, based in Ocaña, Toledo. You can meet the firm's team before explaining your circumstances.
Shopify accounting: what we review from order to bank
-
Orders, invoices and returns
We compare sales, discounts, shipping charges and taxes with the documents issued. An order, a payment and an invoice serve different purposes. Each return must also be linked to its refund and, where applicable, the correction to the invoice.
Shopify allows you to export orders and transaction histories. The exported history contains captured payments rather than authorisations: we agree which files are needed for your closing, rather than assume a single CSV contains all the accounting information.
-
Shopify Payments, PayPal and Stripe: separate sources
For Shopify Payments, we review transaction and payout exports and the balance activity report, subject to availability. We look for matches between order and payment identifiers, amounts, currencies, fees, refunds, chargebacks, reserves and transfers. The Shopify Payments documentation distinguishes pending funds, reserves and payout statuses; a transfer that has been sent may still be awaiting receipt in the bank.
If you take payments through PayPal, we also need its transactions and settlements, rather than only the Shopify order marked as paid. Shopify Payments and an external Stripe account must also be distinguished. According to the official gateway availability guidance, Stripe is not offered as a standalone gateway where Shopify Payments is available. If your company uses Stripe through another channel, we review that flow separately, without assuming a direct integration with your Spanish store.
-
Balances, chargebacks and timing differences
A balance awaiting payout must be identified at closing. The same applies to reserves, open disputes and receipts in another currency. We review transaction and transfer dates to locate differences between periods; a chargeback requires documentation and is not automatically treated as a commercial return.
Hypothetical example, not a real case: a settlement groups €1,210 in receipts, €121 in refunds and €25 in fees. If there are no other adjustments or previous balances, the transfer would be €1,064. That figure does not represent sales or profit for the period. Taxes must be broken down, refunded transactions identified, and the dates and orders included in the payout checked. The fees in this example are invented and do not represent a Shopify rate.
-
Apps, advertising, purchases and inventory
We request invoices for your Shopify plan, applications, advertising, goods and logistics. We review who invoices each expense and from which country, alongside the documentation needed to determine its treatment. A bank statement entry does not replace the supplier's invoice.
For inventory, we agree stock, location, purchase, movement and return data as of a cut-off date. The stock shown in the store is an operational source that must be checked against its valuation and the warehouses used.
Shopify VAT, OSS and imports according to your operations
The VAT review depends on the actual transaction. Our tax advisory service helps define the business's applicable obligations and the scope of the work.
| Store operations | Information we need | What must be analysed |
|---|---|---|
| Sales in Spain | Product, customer, invoice and dispatch and delivery locations | Place of supply, VAT rate and applicable scheme |
| B2C sales to other EU countries | Establishment, destinations, amounts and dispatch origin | Destination taxation and possible use of the Union OSS scheme |
| Sales to EU businesses | Customer identification and proof of transport | B2B treatment and corresponding obligations, separately from OSS |
| Imports or dropshipping | Suppliers, contracts, consignment value and importer | Import VAT, customs and possible IOSS |
| Stock outside Spain | Countries, warehouses and movements between locations | Possible local registrations and returns; scope of the coordination needed |
The Spanish Tax Agency explains the one-stop shop schemes as options for certain B2C transactions meeting the requirements. OSS should not be understood as a solution that removes every obligation in the country where you hold stock.
IOSS has a different scope: certain distance sales of imported goods in consignments with an intrinsic value no greater than €150, excluding excise goods and subject to other conditions. Selling outside Spain or dropshipping is not enough to apply it. Before changing prices or taxes in the dashboard, we review the goods' journey and each party's responsibilities.
Documents to prepare and the deliverables we agree
For an initial assessment, prepare a sample of reports without sending passwords:
- Orders for the period, issued invoices and correction documents.
- Shopify Payments transactions, payouts and balances; transactions from PayPal or other providers used.
- Bank statements and evidence of fees, disputes and adjustments.
- Invoices for purchases, apps, advertising and logistics.
- Sales and stock countries, warehouse movements and your current tax position.
With this information, we define a workflow and frequency. The proposal must identify the sources to be used, who supplies each file and the cut-off dates needed. Deliverables are specified in writing: reconciliation by gateway with unresolved differences, a list of missing documents, accounting closing and a calendar of included returns, with filing receipts when submitted. Their format and frequency depend on the service agreed.
How we get started with your Shopify store
- 1
Map the store
we review products, countries, warehouses, currencies, apps and additional channels.
- 2
Sample documentation
we check that orders, payments and invoices allow transactions to be reconstructed.
- 3
Scope proposal
we define tasks, documentation, frequency, fees and additional work.
- 4
Reconciliation and follow-up
we organise the agreed closing work and review changes to gateways, countries or warehouses that you tell us about.
How much does Shopify accounting cost?
The quote depends on document volume, gateways, channels, countries and the quality of available records. A store with few bank payments may still have many transactions to review. We therefore request a sample before setting the fees.
The proposal must specify included returns and the treatment of OSS, foreign registrations, outstanding periods or data reconstruction. Any technical integration needed must be assessed expressly; it does not presume that the firm has an automatic connector. Store development, campaigns and order administration are outside the tax and accounting service described here.