What makes shopify & dtc brands different from an ordinary filing?
Direct-to-consumer sales put the tax determination on the seller rather than a marketplace, so place-of-supply, threshold monitoring and registration all become the brand's own compliance function. An ordinary preparer applies the general rule and stops there, which is how the relief in the specific provision goes unclaimed.
Can you work with my existing accountant?
That is how most of these engagements run. They keep the domestic file, we take the cross-border piece, and the boundary is agreed in writing so nothing is done twice or missed.
Do I collect sales tax myself if no marketplace is collecting?
Yes. Where a marketplace facilitator is deemed to be the supplier, it takes on the determination, the collection and usually the reporting. Selling direct removes that layer entirely, and every part of it falls back on the brand: deciding where each sale is supplied, monitoring whether registration is required in that place, registering, charging at the right rate and filing. Nothing about the store software does this for you; the rates it applies are the rates you configured. The first task is not a return, it is a map of where your customers are and what each of those places expects of a seller with no local establishment.
Does my logistics provider holding stock in another country register me there?
Very often it does. Stock held in a warehouse is your property in that country, and in many systems holding goods there for sale is itself a registration trigger regardless of turnover, because the sale that follows is a domestic supply rather than an import. A third-party provider that quietly rebalances inventory between its own sites can therefore create obligations in places you never chose. Ask your provider for a location report showing where your units have actually been held, by month. That report, not the contract, tells you which registrations you need and from what date they should have started.
How do refunds and returns get reflected in my tax filings?
By adjusting the period in which the credit is given, which means the tax collected on the original sale has to be traceable to the refund that later reverses it. Brands with a generous returns policy frequently file on gross sales and never claim the adjustment, overpaying quietly. The opposite failure is netting refunds against sales in a different jurisdiction from the original supply, which understates one filing and overstates another. Reconcile refunds to the original order, keep the credit documentation the local rules require, and make the adjustment in the same registration the sale was reported under.
Where is the place of supply for a digital download?
Generally where the customer belongs, not where your servers or your company sit. That is the design of most digital supply regimes: the tax follows the consumer. The difficulty is evidencing it, because you have to decide which customer indicator governs when they disagree, and billing address, delivery address, payment card issuer and connection data routinely point at different countries. The rules usually specify how many pieces of non-contradictory evidence you need and what to do when they conflict. Set that logic in the checkout and keep the evidence with the order, because it is the evidence, not the rule, that gets audited.
Do I need to register before or after crossing a threshold?
It depends entirely on the regime, and both patterns exist. Some require registration once sales into a territory exceed a stated level, measured over a defined period, and they apply from the sale that crosses it rather than from the next financial year. Others require registration from the first sale where the seller has no local establishment, or where stock is held locally, with no threshold at all. The practical consequence is that threshold monitoring has to run continuously against your own sales data by destination, not be reviewed at year end when the crossing point is months behind you.
Who owes import tax when I ship direct to a customer?
Whoever the shipping terms name as importer of record, which is a commercial choice you make and not a tax rule you discover. Ship on terms where the customer is the importer and they can be met with a charge from the carrier on the doorstep, which drives refusals and refund requests. Ship on delivered terms and you are the importer, which may oblige you to register in that country and changes how the sale is taxed. Either is workable. What is not workable is a checkout that does not say which one applies, because the cost lands somewhere regardless.
I have not filed for several years while living abroad — what are my options?
Both countries have routes back, and using one before they contact you is what preserves the relief. On the US side there are procedures aimed at taxpayers whose failure was not wilful, including one designed for people living outside the country, and separate procedures for late account reports and information returns alone. Canada has its voluntary disclosures programme and taxpayer relief for penalties and interest. Filing quietly and hoping is the one approach with no protection attached to it. See catch-up filing.
What happens if I have not filed for several years?
Missed years are handled as one package, not one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year determines the relief available for the rest. Each country has a disclosure or relief programme with its own conditions, and entering the right one — before the authority contacts you — is usually what keeps penalties down. Filing quietly outside a programme forfeits that protection. See catching up on missed returns.
