Shopify · MTD for Income Tax

Making Tax Digital for UK Shopify sellers

Last reviewed 28 October 2026 against GOV.UK guidance. General information, not tax advice.

Short answer: For a sole trader with a Shopify store, MTD for Income Tax works the same way as for marketplace sellers. Turnover is gross order receipts less refunds, and Shopify's payment fees, subscription and app charges are expenses. The Shopify Payments transactions export covers card payments. Payments taken through other gateways, such as PayPal, appear in that gateway's records instead.

Payouts vs transactions

A Shopify payout to your bank can bundle many orders, refunds and adjustments, and it arrives net of fees. For MTD you want the individual transactions, each with its own date, amount and fee. Shopify's export has columns for Transaction Date, Type, Order, Amount, Fee, Net and Payout Date.

Use Amount on charges as gross income, refunds as reductions, and Fee as an expense. Payout Date is useful for reconciling to your bank, but the transaction date is what most sellers use for the record.

Costs that aren't in the payout file

Your Shopify plan, paid apps, domains and themes are billed separately, so they won't be in the Payments export. Add them from your Shopify bills as expense records. If you take payments through PayPal or another provider, download that provider's activity too, and check you're not counting the same order twice.

What to export from Shopify

Export transactions, not payouts.

From your Shopify admin, go to Finance, then Payouts.
Click View transactions.
Click Export and choose Items by date, set to the MTD period (for example 6 April 2027 to 5 July 2027).
Choose CSV and click Export items. Shopify emails the file to you and the store owner.

If your store gets payouts in more than one currency, details can be separated by currency. Convert non-sterling amounts using a consistent, reasonable rate. See our guide to foreign currency sales.

Worked example: a month of Shopify Payments

Example Illustrative figures, not real data.

Line	Amount
Charges (gross order amounts)	£4,250.00
Refunds	−£180.00
Turnover from Shopify Payments	£4,070.00
Shopify Payments fees (expense)	−£98.40
Paid out to bank	£3,971.60
Shopify plan and apps, billed separately (expense)	£48.00

The £48 subscription doesn't appear in the payout but is still an expense. PayPal orders for the same month would be added from PayPal's activity download.

Key dates for the April 2027 group

Date	What happens
31 Jan 2027	Deadline for your 2025 to 2026 return. It's the one HMRC uses for the £30,000 test
6 Apr 2027	MTD starts if qualifying income was over £30,000. Digital records from this date (standard periods)
7 Aug 2027	First quarterly update (6 Apr to 5 Jul 2027)
7 Nov 2027 · 7 Feb 2028 · 7 May 2028	Updates 2, 3 and 4 (each cumulative from 6 April)
31 Jan 2029	Submit the 2027 to 2028 tax return through your software and pay
6 Apr 2028	Threshold falls to £20,000, based on the 2026 to 2027 return

Penalty points for late quarterly updates apply from 2027 to 2028. 4 points means a £200 penalty. GOV.UK: send quarterly updates.

Want your Shopify exports turned into one MTD-ready workbook?

TidyTill reads Etsy, eBay, Amazon, PayPal and Shopify exports, works out gross turnover, splits it into MTD periods and flags gaps and duplicates. Upload your exports and see your totals, quarters and Health Check free before you pay. Then £19 one-off for a workbook or £49 a year for unlimited workbooks. Paid workbook downloads open very soon; the free preview works now.

Try the free preview Get launch updates

Questions

Is Shopify recognised MTD software?

Shopify is an e-commerce platform. HMRC's software finder lists the products that can send MTD submissions. You can keep records in a spreadsheet built from Shopify exports and submit through bridging software.

Do I record each order or each payout?

Each transaction gives you the date, amount and fee HMRC asks digital records to have. A payout combines many transactions net of fees, so it's better used as a check.

Sources

Create digital records (digital links, simpler categorisation, net income) (GOV.UK)
Send quarterly updates (update periods and deadlines) (GOV.UK)
Using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for the first time (GOV.UK)
Find software that's compatible with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
Viewing and exporting your Shopify Payments payout details (Shopify Help Centre)
BIM39515: Foreign exchange, exchange rate for tax purposes (HMRC internal manual (GOV.UK))

This page is general information based on the GOV.UK guidance linked above, as it stood on 28 October 2026. It isn't tax advice. Rules and dates can change, so check GOV.UK or ask an accountant about your own situation. TidyTill isn't HMRC-recognised software and doesn't send anything to HMRC.