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Year End Taxes

Learn how to use your Reports page to get information on your yearly shipping costs

Updated over 3 months ago

How to get a yearly summary of your shipping costs

It's easy to get a summary of your shipping costs for taxes! Just head to your Reports page here: https://ship.pirateship.com/reports 

  • Selecting the date range: You can change the Date Range at the top of the page to adjust those reports. This will update all the numbers & charts, and give you a total that you can use for your accounting 👍

    • Here's where you can change the date range:

A screenshot of the header on the Reports page showing the dropdown menu for selecting the time frame of the report. To see the report for purchases from 2019, select last year from the dropdown menu.

  • Total Shipping Costs: The "Total Shipping Costs" section of your Reports page will show the total spent on shipping labels over the selected date range:

A screenshot of the Reports page with the Total Shipping Cost highlighted to show the spending on postage from last year. There is a hyper-link labeled View Transactions that can be clicked on to view a line item report.

  • See a line-item report: If you need to export a line-item report, click the "View Transactions" link underneath Total Shipping Costs:

A screenshot of the Total Shipping Costs with the link to View Transactions highlighted to show where to click to get a line item report.

  • Filtering Transaction History: You can filter the Transaction History for the date range you need. Just click on the Date column header to apply that filter.

    • For instance, in this example, if you want to see everything from 2019, set the range as January 1st, 2019 - January 1st, 2020:

A screenshot of the landing page after clicking on View Transactions. This shows a spreadsheet that lists all transactions made on Pirate Ship and can filter the transactions for the date period by clicking on the column labeled Date and the filter icon to enter in the date range for 2019 from 1/1/2019 - 1/1/20.

  • Exporting to a spreadsheet: Once you have the date range you want, you can use this Export button to get a copy of those transactions in a spreadsheet:

A screenshot that shows the transactions grid filtered to show all transactions from 2019. After this is displayed, clicking on the blue Export button in the upper-left corner will download a spreadsheet of this data.

What if my Total Shipping Costs are higher than my total payments for the year?

  • Total Shipping Costs vs. Total Payments: When looking at your Reports page, you may notice that your Total Shipping Costs are slightly higher than the amount listed in your Total Payments field. This can happen sometimes due to fees you incur or credits you receive outside of your actual label purchases, such as:

    • Refunds

    • Pickup fees

    • Carrier adjustments (positive or negative)

    • Insurance claim payouts

For cash-based accounting, use your "Total Payments" field on your Reports page

  • Use Total Payments for cash-based accounting: If your business uses cash-based accounting, the easiest way to tally your expenses for the year is to simply use the number shown in your Total Payments.

    • Here's how that looks:

For accrual-based accounting, segment different categories in your Transaction History using the "Type" column and export to a spreadsheet

  • Use your Transaction History for accrual-based accounting: If your business uses accrual-basis accounting, or if you want to specifically itemize the different categories of your expenses (such as label costs, pickups, carrier adjustments, insurance claim payouts, etc), here's how to do that:

    • Using the "Type" column in your Transaction History, segment the different categories in your Transaction History grid

    • Make sure "Payments" is not selected

    • Export your Transaction History categories minus your "Payments" into a spreadsheet by clicking the blue "Export" button

  • Be mindful of rollover Account Balances: When using accrual-based accounting, you'll also need to be mindful of any rollover Account Balances from 2022 > 2023 or 2023 >2024.

Do I need a W-9 to send a 1099 to Pirate Ship?

  • No 1099 Necessary: The IRS has an exception for payments for freight, so it's not necessary to issue Pirate Ship a 1099 form.

    • See this screenshot for context:

A screenshot showing IRS exceptions that notes that some payments don’t need to be reported on form 1099-MISC, which includes payments for merchandise, telegrams, telephone, freight, storage and similar items.

Use Certified Mail to send taxes to the IRS, not a package service

  • Certified Mail vs. shipping services: The IRS prefers you use Certified Mail service to send your tax returns to the IRS, and not a shipping service like the ones we sell on Pirate Ship.

    • When you purchase a "Certificate of Mailing," USPS assigns you a tracking number that allows you to track First-Class Mail similar to how you can track packages 👍

    • Unfortunately, Pirate Ship doesn't offer Certified Mail service! You'll need to visit your local Post Office for that. For more info on mailing your tax return to the IRS, visit the USPS website.

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