Amazon seller EÜR: booking income and expenses

In the EÜR (income surplus statement), your Amazon sales are income, and the fees, advertising and your purchases are expenses. The payout itself does not belong in it: it is only the money that reaches you after everything else is taken off. The EÜR follows the cash principle. What counts is when money reaches you or leaves you, not when you sold or received the invoice (section 11 EStG).

Last updated: 27 October 2026

In brief

Income: Your sales, counted without VAT (net). You enter the VAT on them separately.
Expenses: Amazon fees, advertising, goods purchased and every other cost caused by the business.
Only a money movement: the payout itself, and transfers between your own accounts.
Refunds to customers reduce your income.
Timing: What counts is generally the inflow or outflow in the calendar year (section 11(1) sentence 1 and (2) sentence 1 EStG).

What is income and what is an expense at Amazon?

The table shows where the usual items go on the Anlage EÜR. The line numbers apply to the 2025 form; check them on the form for the year you file.

Item	Treatment	Anlage EÜR 2025
Sales to customers, net	business income	line 15
VAT on those sales	VAT received	line 17
Refunds to customers	reduce business income	take into account in the income amount
Amazon fees	business expense	line 29 (commissions) or line 60
Advertising on Amazon	business expense	line 60 if no more specific line fits
Goods purchased	business expense	line 27
Input VAT from invoices	business expense	line 57
VAT paid to the tax office	business expense	line 58
The payout from Amazon	only a money movement	no line

If you are a small business (Kleinunternehmer), you enter all business income received in line 12 of the Anlage EÜR, not in lines 15 to 17, and enter your expenses at the gross amount.

Why is the payout not income?

The payout is what is left after fees, refunds and any amounts held back. If you booked the payout as income, the fees would be missing as expenses and your profit would come out too high. So you book the sale before fees as income and the fees one by one as expenses. A worked example is in Amazon payouts and tax: what counts as income.

Cash principle: when does a sale count?

Income is received in the calendar year in which it flowed to you (section 11(1) sentence 1 EStG). In a ruling on investment income, the Federal Fiscal Court describes inflow like this: you have it when you have gained economic control over the money. With Amazon the question is whether the money is yours at the sale or only at the payout. Whether a balance sitting at Amazon has already flowed to you depends on the circumstances; there is no blanket answer. In any case, stick to one approach and write it down, and talk to your tax adviser about larger amounts around the year end.

There is an exception for regularly recurring income and expenses: if they flow shortly before the start or shortly after the end of the year they belong to economically, they count in that year (section 11(1) sentence 2 and (2) sentence 2 EStG). For example, according to ELSTER's guidance a VAT prepayment that falls due and is paid within ten days after the start of the year still counts for the previous year.

VAT in the EÜR

The VAT from your sales is part of your income (line 17), input VAT from invoices counts as an expense (line 57), and so does the tax paid to the tax office (line 58). ELSTER's guidance asks for the income in line 15 without VAT; the tax on it goes into line 17. How the tax gets from the VAT return into the EÜR is in EÜR: booking VAT and input VAT. If the sale price changes through a refund, the VAT owed changes too (section 17(1) UStG).

What does the routine look like?

Download the VAT Transactions Report for each month (how). It contains sales and refunds as well as fee lines.
Sort the sales into income, split into net amount and VAT.
Assign the fee lines to expenses; you need the fee invoices as receipts (Deduct Amazon fees).
Record goods purchased and other costs from your own invoices.
At year end, reconcile the totals with the settlement reports (settlement report explained).
Carry the totals into the Anlage EÜR (line by line).

Common mistakes

Booking the payout as income. The fees are then missing as expenses and the profit is too high.
Mixing gross and net. Line 15 asks for income without VAT.
Forgetting refunds. Money paid back to customers reduces income.
Deducting fees without an invoice. You need the invoice for the input VAT deduction.
Overlooking the year end. December sales whose money arrives in January are a question of inflow.

How VAT GPT helps

You upload the Amazon CSV, VAT GPT sorts the sales rows by tax scheme and country (Germany or EU/OSS) and books the fee rows (AMAZON_FEE) as expenses; you see them on the Expenses page. The AI reads your own invoices, and you check and confirm. The income and expenses captured this way flow into your EÜR; with VAT GPT Pro you create the EÜR, trade tax return and income tax return and send them through ELSTER. There is Free, Go (30 days free with all Pro features) and Pro (€49 per month or €444 per year, including VAT). Try for free now

Frequently asked questions

Is the Amazon payout my income? No. Your income is your sales; the payout is only the money that reaches you after deductions.

When does an Amazon sale count as income? When the money has flowed to you (section 11(1) sentence 1 EStG). For amounts still sitting at Amazon it is a question of the individual case.

Where do Amazon fees go on the Anlage EÜR? ELSTER's guidance names commissions at line 29, "Bezogene Leistungen"; what fits none of lines 24 to 59 goes into line 60.

Do refunds reduce income? Yes, money paid back to customers reduces business income; the VAT is adjusted accordingly (section 17 UStG).

What is different for a small business? Your income goes into line 12 of the Anlage EÜR at the total amount received, and you enter your expenses gross.