Understanding why your Seller Ledger income totals don't match your 1099-K
Many sellers are surprised that the income totals in Seller Ledger don't exactly match the 1099-K form they receive from their marketplace. Rest assured, this is usually expected, and not a sign of a problem. Here's why the numbers may differ.
Timezone differences
Marketplaces like eBay often provide transaction data in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). However, 1099-Ks are generated based on your local time zone. This means some sales made late on December 31 in your local time may be counted in the following year in Seller Ledger (or vice versa). To minimize this, set your local timezone under Settings → Business.
Sales tax is included on the 1099-K
Some marketplaces (like Amazon) include sales tax collected in the gross amount reported on the 1099-K, even though you never actually received that money (it was remitted to the state for you). And yet many other marketplaces exclude sales tax from their 1099-K totals. Seller Ledger separates out sales tax so it doesn't inflate your income — but this means your Seller Ledger number will be lower than the 1099-K.
Shipping collected
Shipping charged to customers is usually included in the 1099-K gross amount. Seller Ledger also tracks this as income (under "Shipping Collected"), so make sure you're comparing apples to apples. Your total Product Sales + Shipping Collected should get close to the 1099-K number.
Canceled or refunded orders
1099-Ks typically report gross amounts before refunds. Seller Ledger includes refunds as reductions to income. If you had significant refunds or cancellations, your Seller Ledger net income will be lower than the 1099-K gross.
Express/early payouts from eBay (for older data)
If you used express payouts on eBay more than 90 days before you connected, Seller Ledger isn't able to retrieve order-level detail. We categorize those payouts as "Product Sales," which keeps your overall profit accurate but may not perfectly match the 1099-K. See our article on express payouts for details.
Etsy canceled orders
Orders canceled before payment is collected don't come to Seller Ledger at all. Orders canceled after payment is collected show as both an order and a matching refund. This can make Etsy 1099-Ks more challenging to match to.
If you would like to see a detailed example of how numbers can differ, even within a single marketplace, check out this deep dive we did on eBay and their 1099ks.