Refunds, processing fees, chargebacks and currency movements are embedded in the payout. If your books record only the bank deposit, the real picture — and the correct VAT — are both missing.
You are running a real Shopify business — and the accounting has not kept pace with the store.
Four areas, each connected to the others. One set of numbers across the whole business.
Your VAT position depends on what you sell, where the goods are located, where the customer is based and whether the sale is domestic, intra-EU or an import. Shopify tax settings are a calculator — not a compliance review.
| Area | Threshold or trigger | What it means for your store |
|---|---|---|
| Irish VAT | €85,000 goods · €42,500 services | The main domestic registration thresholds (effective January 2025). Other transactions — including purchases of services from abroad — can create an obligation earlier. |
| Union OSS | €10,000 combined EU threshold (optional compliance simplification) |
For qualifying Irish-established businesses, a combined €10,000 threshold can apply to intra-EU distance sales of goods and certain cross-border B2C TBE services. Once exceeded, VAT is generally due in the customer's Member State. Union OSS is an optional compliance simplification that allows qualifying VAT to be reported through one Irish OSS return instead of separate VAT registrations solely for those covered distance sales. The Commission expressly describes OSS as optional. |
| IOSS | Imported consignments up to €150 | Allows VAT to be collected and reported at checkout for qualifying goods sent from outside the EU directly to EU consumers. Does not remove the new customs duty charge. |
| Customs duty | From 1 July 2026 | From 1 July 2026, a temporary €3 customs duty generally applies per distinct product/tariff category in qualifying e-commerce consignments with an intrinsic value of €150 or less imported from outside the EU. IOSS continues to simplify VAT collection but does not remove the €3 customs duty. Where IOSS applies, Revenue currently provides that VAT is not charged on the €3 duty itself. Note: where a consumer returns an unwanted non-EU low-value item, the €3 duty is generally not refunded by Customs — sellers should review how their returns policy addresses this.Changed July 2026 |
| Stock in other EU countries | Local registration may apply | Holding or moving stock through Amazon FBA or other EU fulfilment centres can create a local VAT registration in that country — outside OSS coverage. |
Forti reviews your customer locations, stock movements and current registrations before recommending any filing route. No assumption made from Shopify settings alone.
Forti can bring every platform into one accounting file — each channel reconciled separately, combined into one view of the business.
"The review found missing receipts, manual VAT overrides, expenses in the wrong accounts, no clear EU sales breakdown and mismatches between Shopify, Stripe and Xero."
A fast-growing Irish Shopify retailer came to Forti after its bookkeeping fell behind the business. Forti reconciled the records, corrected the VAT coding, rebuilt the chart of accounts for online retail and introduced monthly receipt and reconciliation controls.
Read the full case study →
Five stages from the first call to a running monthly cycle. The goal at each step is to make the next one clean.
Fixed monthly fees — confirmed before any work starts. Your package depends on order volume, number of channels and reporting needs.
Historical clean-up, additional VAT registrations and third-party software costs may be quoted separately. Forti confirms scope and fixed monthly fee before work starts. All fees exclude VAT at 23%. Transaction count refers to accounting transactions — bank deposits, payment-platform settlements, purchase invoices, expense receipts — not individual Shopify customer orders. View full pricing →
Most issues start the same way — a payout recorded as income, a VAT setting left on default, stock costs never mapped to sales.
Net payout posted to revenue. €790 of refunds, payment-processing fees, disputes and currency movements are invisible in the accounts each month.
Gross sales, fees, refunds and payouts reconciled separately. Every layer of the payout is visible.
VAT overrides changed manually in Shopify. Mismatches between the store, payment reports and Xero.
VAT coding controlled at bookkeeping level. Returns reconciled to the actual transaction data.
No EU sales breakdown by country. OSS position impossible to verify at filing time.
Sales split by customer country and transaction type. OSS returns prepared from the actual figures.
Fulfilment and stock costs mixed into overheads. Gross margin by product is unavailable.
Cost of goods, landed cost and fulfilment matched to sales. Product margin is a real number.
Guides, glossaries and answers to help you understand the compliance side of running a Shopify store in Ireland.
Answers that reflect how Shopify accounting actually works in Ireland — not how it works in theory.
You should be able to see what the store sold, what the platforms deducted, what VAT is due and what profit remains. A 20-minute review can often identify the main gaps in the current set-up.
Book your free Shopify accounts review
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