Quick Answer
You must report your gross Shopify sales as income — not your Shopify Payments deposits. Deposits are net amounts after fees and refunds. The difference between deposits and gross sales must be accounted for in your books to avoid CRA income discrepancies.
The CRA compares your reported income against your bank deposits. If your bank deposits significantly exceed — or fall short of — your reported revenue, it triggers questions. For Shopify sellers, understanding the difference between your Shopify Payments deposits and your gross sales is essential to avoid this problem.
Gross Sales vs. Shopify Payments Deposits
Your Shopify Payments deposit is a net amount. Before depositing to your bank, Shopify deducts:
- Shopify Payments transaction fees (typically 0.5%–1.5% depending on your plan)
- Refunds issued to customers during the payout period
- Chargebacks deducted from your balance
- Shopify Payments reserve (withheld for higher-risk accounts)
What you must declare to the CRA is your gross sales figure from your Shopify Analytics dashboard — not the bank deposit amount.
Where to Find Your Gross Sales
In your Shopify admin: Analytics → Reports → Sales by channel. Download the monthly or annual summary. This shows gross sales, discounts, returns, and net sales before any Shopify fees.
Reconciling Shopify Payments Deposits
Monthly reconciliation workflow:
- Download your Shopify Payments payout report from Settings → Payments
- Identify gross sales for the period from your Analytics report
- Confirm the payout equals: Gross sales − Fees − Refunds
- Book gross sales to revenue, fees to expenses, refunds to returns
- Verify the net amount matches your bank statement deposit
What Happens if You Just Book the Deposit?
If you record only the deposit amount as revenue, you underreport income by the amount of fees and refunds included. Your books won't reconcile with Shopify's records, and if the CRA ever requests your sales data from Shopify (which they can), the discrepancy becomes an audit trigger.
Avoid CRA Income Mismatches
MaxRefund reconciles your Shopify Payments deposits against gross sales every month, so your CRA filings are accurate and consistent.
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