#e-commerce
E-commerce
Accounting solutions for online stores and e-commerce businesses
Print-on-Demand Bookkeeping: COGS, Fulfillment Fees, and Sales Tax Nexus Explained
Print-on-demand sellers who are merchants of record (Shopify with Printful or Printify) owe sales tax themselves and can deduct real COGS, while royalty-based marketplace sellers (Redbubble, Amazon Merch, Etsy) owe no sales tax because the platform is a marketplace facilitator and have no deductible COGS at all.
Visa and Mastercard Just Tightened Chargeback Monitoring Again: What the 2026 VAMP Threshold Cut Means for Merchants
Visa lowered its VAMP excessive-merchant threshold from 2.2% to 1.5% on April 1, 2026, with fines of $8 per flagged transaction, and Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Program still triggers at 100+ monthly chargebacks — here's how the ratio math catches small merchants off guard and how to bring it back under the line.
Etsy's 2026 Fee Hike and AI-Disclosure Rules: What Handmade Sellers Must Fix Before August 11
Etsy raised its UK Regulatory Operating Fee from 0.32% to 0.48% on June 22, 2026, and starting August 11, 2026 requires AI-content and production-partner disclosure plus original designs for laser-cut, sublimation, and CNC products — here's the pricing formula and compliance checklist to handle both.
PCI DSS 4.0 Compliance Guide for Small Merchants in 2026
PCI DSS 4.0's transition period ended March 31, 2025, so every merchant assessment from 2026 onward now enforces mandatory payment-page script monitoring, MFA for all cardholder-data access, and authenticated internal vulnerability scans — noncompliance risks $5,000-$100,000 monthly fines from acquiring banks plus an average $173,692 added breach cost per IBM's research.
TikTok Shop Seller Bookkeeping: Reconciling Gross Sales, Fees, and Your 1099-K
TikTok Shop's 1099-K reports unadjusted gross sales, not net payout — referral fees, payment processing charges, and affiliate commissions typically consume 30-45% of that total before it reaches a seller's bank account, and untracked fees can inflate taxable income.
EU VAT One Stop Shop: How US Freelancers and SaaS Founders Sell Into Europe Without 27 Tax Registrations
The EU's Non-Union OSS scheme lets US freelancers and SaaS founders selling digital products to EU consumers file one quarterly VAT return instead of registering separately in all 27 member states.
Retail Return Fraud and Wardrobing: How to Catch It in Your Books
Wardrobing and other return fraud account for roughly 10–15% of retail returns and cost U.S. retailers over $100 billion a year; reason-code tracking, customer-level return reports, and a monthly returns reserve are the bookkeeping controls that catch it before it erodes margin.
Buy Now, Pay Later Is Quietly Breaking Your Books: A Merchant's Guide to Accounting for Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay
BNPL providers pay merchants the full sale price minus a fee, then report gross volume on a 1099-K — so recording only the net deposit understates revenue and triggers IRS underreporter notices. Record gross sales through per-provider clearing accounts to keep fees, reserves, and 1099-K totals reconciled.
All-In Pricing in 2026: SB 478, the FTC Junk Fees Rule, and the State Compliance Patchwork
California SB 478, the FTC Junk Fees Rule, and new Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Connecticut statutes require all-in pricing across hotels, tickets, restaurants, and subscriptions in 2026. A practical compliance checklist covering pricing engines, third-party feeds, frontline scripts, and the accounting reclassification work that follows.
Life After Section 321: How Small E-Commerce Importers Are Rebuilding Landed Cost, Pricing, and Cash Flow in 2026
A practical guide for Shopify and Amazon FBA sellers on rebuilding landed cost, pricing, and bookkeeping after the May and August 2025 suspensions of the Section 321 de minimis exemption, with line-by-line duty math, entry-type tradeoffs, and cash-flow tactics.
Sales Tax Holidays 2026: A Multi-Channel Retailer's Compliance and POS Configuration Guide
Twenty-one US states run sales tax holidays in 2026, with seven converging on August 7–9. Here is how Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and Etsy sellers should configure product taxability, plan inventory, and avoid the per-item cap, bundled-sale, and excluded-venue mistakes that drive audit losses.
Texas Data Privacy Act and the 20-State Patchwork: A 2026 Compliance Playbook
Twenty US states have comprehensive consumer privacy laws in effect by 2026, twelve require Global Privacy Control recognition, and cure periods are sunsetting in Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Montana. Here is the minimum viable compliance program for SaaS, e-commerce, and professional service operators.