eBay seller EÜR: booking sales, fees and payouts

In the EÜR (income surplus statement), what the buyer paid for your sales is income on eBay. The eBay fees are business expenses. You do not book the payout as such: it is the money that reaches you after the fees are taken off. The EÜR works out profit as the surplus of business income over business expenses (section 4(3) EStG) and follows the cash principle (section 11 EStG).

Last updated: 27 October 2026

In brief

Income: the sale, counted without VAT (net). You enter the VAT on it separately.
Expenses: the selling fee, other eBay fees and shipping labels, as far as the business caused them (section 4(4) EStG).
No booking for the payout: it is a money movement.
Refunds to buyers reduce your income.
Source: the transaction report from Seller Hub Pro. Download it every quarter, because it reaches back 90 days at a time.

How do you use the eBay transaction report for the EÜR?

The transaction report is a CSV file with all account movements of a period. How to download it is in Download the eBay transaction report; the columns are explained in eBay report columns explained. For the EÜR these columns matter, as eBay's help page describes them (the column names are as eBay's German report words them):

Column	Meaning according to eBay's help page	In the EÜR
Transaktionsbetrag (inkl. Kosten)	the total payment for a transaction before fees or credits	basis of the income
Verkaufsprovision	variable percentage plus a fixed amount per sale	business expense
Sonstige Gebühren	for example subscription, extra option and advertising fees	business expense
Versandetikett	fees or credits for shipping label purchases and refunds	business expense
Fall, Zahlungsstreitfall	refunds under buyer protection, a claim for money back through the bank	reduce the income
Nettobetrag	the total payment after fees and credits	payout amount, no booking
Einbehalten	amounts that are not available while eBay resolves a problem	a question of inflow, see below

Which amounts are income, which expenses, which a plain money movement?

An example with assumed figures: a buyer pays 119.00 euros for an item sold with 19% VAT. The eBay fees for this sale are 15.00 euros in the example. 104.00 euros reach your account.

Income: 100.00 euros net and 19.00 euros VAT. You book the sale before the fees are deducted.
Expense: the fees of 15.00 euros, in the amount the eBay invoice shows. If it includes VAT, you enter the net amount as the fee and the tax as input VAT in line 57; both are business expenses. That is explained in eBay fees: input VAT.
No booking: the payout of 104.00 euros.

If you booked the payout as income, your business income would be too low by the fees, and VAT worked out from the payout would be too low as well. If you then also deducted the fees as an expense, you would count them twice and your profit would come out too low.

Where do the amounts go on the Anlage EÜR?

The line numbers apply to the 2025 form according to ELSTER's guidance; check them on the form for the year you file.

Item	Anlage EÜR 2025
Sales to buyers, net	line 15
VAT on those sales	line 17
eBay fees (commissions)	line 29 or, if no more specific line fits, line 60
Goods purchased	line 27
Input VAT from invoices	line 57
VAT paid to the tax office	line 58
Payout from eBay	no line

If you are a small business (Kleinunternehmer), you enter your complete business income at the total amount actually received in line 12, and you enter your expenses at the gross amount. The lines in detail are in Anlage EÜR: filling in the lines.

VAT in the EÜR and payouts against the bank account

The VAT received, the input VAT and the tax paid to the tax office each have their own lines. How the tax gets from the VAT return into the EÜR is in EÜR: booking VAT and input VAT.

To compare with your bank account, the transaction report carries a payout number (Auszahlung Nr.) and the payout method, which is the bank account given for the payout. There is also the settlement report (Abrechnungsbericht), a monthly PDF overview of orders, refunds, payouts and fees. It is not an invoice. You download the eBay invoice with the seller fees under Reports in the Invoices tab; you need it as the receipt for the fees.

Whether an amount that eBay holds back or has not yet paid out counts as received depends on the circumstances. 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. There is no blanket answer; talk to your tax adviser about larger amounts around the year end. There is an exception for regularly recurring income and expenses paid shortly before or after the turn of the year: they count in the year they belong to economically (section 11(1) sentence 2 and (2) sentence 2 EStG).

The profit calculation for an eBay business in overview is in Small trader on eBay: taxes in Germany. How it looks on Amazon is in Amazon seller EÜR: income and expenses.

Common mistakes

Booking the payout as income. Your business income is then too low by the fees; if you also deduct the fees, you count them twice.
Mixing gross and net. Line 15 asks for income without VAT.
Forgetting refunds. Money paid back to buyers reduces income.
Not saving the transaction report regularly. According to eBay's help page it reaches back 90 days at a time.
Deducting fees without an invoice. You need the eBay invoice for the input VAT.

How VAT GPT helps

You upload the eBay CSV, and VAT GPT breaks the VAT down for Germany and the EU (OSS). From it you prepare your EÜR; with VAT GPT Pro you send the EÜR, trade tax return and income tax return through ELSTER. The AI reads your own invoices, and you check and confirm. VAT GPT is the tax software for Amazon and eBay sellers in Germany: your OSS return first, then VAT, EÜR, trade tax and income tax, calculated and filed in one place. There is Free, Go (30 days free with all Pro features) and Pro. Try for free now

Frequently asked questions

Is the eBay payout my income? No. Your income is your sales before the fees; the payout is the money that arrives after deductions.

Where do the eBay fees go in the 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 to buyers reduce income? Yes, money paid back to buyers reduces business income, in the year it is paid back (section 11(2) sentence 1 EStG); in the transaction report they appear, among others, in the columns Fall and Zahlungsstreitfall.

What about amounts eBay holds back? Whether they have already flowed to you is a question of the individual case (section 11(1) sentence 1 EStG).

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