I run a small e-commerce business from Texas and honestly I think I made a mess of my bookkeeping last year.
Started out using Stripe + PayPal + Shopify and at first it felt manageable, but now tax season is here and none of my numbers match. My CPA asked for clean P&L statements and I realized I’ve been mixing personal and business expenses for months.
Also just found out Texas may not have state income tax, but apparently that doesn’t mean you can ignore franchise tax filings or federal stuff.
At this point I’m less worried about paying taxes and more worried I filed something wrong already. Has anyone else been through this with a growing online business?
My Shopify + Stripe + PayPal numbers don’t match and tax season is exposing everything
byu/chevygirl7891 intax
Posted by chevygirl7891
1 Comment
Don’t try to make the platforms match first; build the year from bank and credit card activity, then reconcile each processor to deposits, fees, refunds, and chargebacks. Shopify, Stripe, and PayPal almost never line up cleanly because gross sales, payouts, processing fees, refunds, and timing all hit in different places.
The clean path is: separate personal/business from today forward, export bank/CC statements plus Shopify orders and Stripe/PayPal payout reports, tag owner draws/personal expenses separately, and let the CPA work from a rebuilt P&L instead of screenshots. For Texas, ask the CPA specifically about franchise tax/public information report and sales tax, because “no state income tax” does not mean “no filings.”
I wouldn’t amend or re-file anything until the books are reconstructed. This is fixable, but the worst move is guessing your way into cleaner-looking numbers.