Yes — Shopify's "Total sales" figure includes tax. Total sales is the top-line number that adds shipping, taxes, and duties on top of Net sales, then subtracts returns. If you want the revenue number without tax, you want Gross sales or Net sales instead, both of which sit lower in the report because tax and shipping are stripped out.
So the same week of orders shows up as three different "sales" numbers inside Shopify — and none of them equals the cash that lands in your bank.
If you have ever exported a Shopify Finance report and wondered why "Total sales" looks bigger than what you thought you sold, you are running into the with-tax-versus-without question. It trips up nearly every merchant the first time. This guide walks the exact math so you know which line to trust for which job.
Gross vs Net vs Total sales in Shopify
Shopify reports revenue in three stacked tiers. Each one includes or excludes tax differently, which is the whole source of the confusion. The structural definitions come straight from the Shopify Help Center Finances report.
Gross sales — before tax
Gross sales equals product price times quantity, before any deductions. It excludes tax, shipping, and discounts. This is the "sticker price" of what left your store, with nothing added and nothing taken away.
Net sales — still before tax
Net sales equals Gross sales minus discounts and minus returns. It still excludes tax and shipping. Note the common trap: Net sales is defined by discounts and returns, not by your processing fees — fees never touch the sales report at all.
Total sales — tax included
Total sales equals Net sales plus shipping plus taxes plus duties, minus returns. This is the tax-inclusive top line most merchants quote. When you ask "does Shopify Total sales include tax," this row is exactly why the answer is yes.
A worked example: with tax vs without
Say you run a print-on-demand mug store and ship one hundred orders in a week. Each order is a $40 product subtotal, plus $5 shipping, plus $4 tax, for a $49 total charged to the customer. Eight of those buyers later request a full refund.
Here is how the three tiers land, with visible arithmetic so you can trace each one:
| Sales tier | What it counts | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross sales | Product price only, pre-tax | 100 × $40 | $4,000 |
| Net sales | Gross minus refunds (no tax/shipping) | $4,000 − (8 × $40) | $3,680 |
| Total sales | Net plus shipping and tax, minus refunds | $3,680 + (92 × $5) + (92 × $4) | $4,508 |
The gap between $4,000 (without tax) and $4,508 (with tax and shipping) is the entire "with tax vs not" question in one row. Neither number is wrong — they answer different questions. Gross tells you what your products priced at; Total tells you everything the customer actually paid.
If your store sets tax-inclusive pricing (common in the UK, EU, and Australia), the tax is baked into the displayed price instead of added at checkout, so the split looks different in the report — but Total sales still isolates the tax portion internally.
Why "Total sales with tax" still isn't your payout
Here is the part almost every SERP article skips. Even your tax-inclusive Total sales number is not the money that hits your bank. The payout is a separate calculation, and reconciling the two is where most merchants lose an afternoon.
A Shopify Payments payout is a batch of balance transactions — captured charges, minus processing fees, minus refunds issued, minus chargeback debits, plus or minus reserves. Processing fees run about 2.9% plus 30¢ per transaction on the Basic plan in the US, per this ReportPundit breakdown, and a disputed order adds a chargeback fee of roughly $15 according to Webgility. Verify the current rate at Shopify's pricing page before you rely on it — plan names and fees drift.
Run the same one hundred orders through the payout math:
Captured charges of 100 × $49 = $4,900. Subtract processing fees of (2.9% × $4,900) + (100 × $0.30) = $142.10 + $30.00 = $172.10. Subtract refunds of 8 × $49 = $392.00. Subtract one $15 chargeback fee. The deposit is $4,900 − $172.10 − $392.00 − $15.00 = $4,320.90.
So one week of one hundred orders produces at least four "true" numbers: Gross sales of $4,000, Total sales of $4,508, and a bank deposit of $4,320.90 — with tax swinging the middle figure. The tax you collected on Total sales is not yours to keep either; it is a liability you remit to the state, which is another reason the payout comes in lower.
Because payouts settle as batches (and orders paid via PayPal or other gateways never enter Shopify Payments at all), you cannot reconcile a payout against a day's sales line-for-line. Our guide to reconciling your ecommerce data walks the full balance-transaction approach, and if you have ever needed to redirect deposits, this walkthrough on changing your payout account on Shopify covers the mechanics.
Which number should you actually use?
Pick the tier by the job:
- Bookkeeping and tax filing: Total sales, because you must account for the tax you collected and remit it. It is the only tier that isolates the tax liability.
- Revenue trends and growth: Net sales, since stripping tax and shipping gives a cleaner view of demand that is comparable across regions with different tax rates.
- Product pricing and margin work: Gross sales, the pre-tax, pre-discount value of what you sold.
- Cash flow: the payout report, never the sales report — the deposit is what you can actually spend.
The one thing none of these tiers tells you is profit. Total sales with tax looks healthy while a per-order loss hides underneath, because ad spend and product cost live in entirely different systems from your Shopify revenue.
That mismatch between platform-reported numbers and store-side truth is a whole discipline. Ad platforms credit sales on their own generous windows, which is why your Meta 7-day-click, 1-day-view attribution never lines up with Shopify's last-click view, and why merchants lean on attribution modeling tools to compare apples to apples.
Where PodVector fits
Knowing that Total sales includes tax is step one. Knowing what each order actually earned you — after product cost, shipping, processing fees, and the ad spend that drove it — is the number that decides whether to scale or kill a product.
PodVector connects Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Printify, Printful, and Stripe, then computes true per-order profit across all of them. Instead of a static dashboard, you get Victor, an AI operator that analyzes your live data and — with your approval — takes Shopify-side actions on it. Victor reads your ad data to explain why a product is losing money, but he does not touch your ad account; the moves he executes are on the Shopify side.
Start with PodVector to see per-order profit sit right next to the Total sales figure you already trust.
For the full stack of attribution problems that sit underneath these numbers, the multi-touch attribution tool breakdown is the natural next read.
FAQs
Does Shopify Total sales include tax?
Yes. Total sales equals Net sales plus shipping, taxes, and duties, minus returns, per the Shopify Finances report definitions. If you want a revenue figure without tax, use Gross sales (pre-everything) or Net sales (after discounts and returns, but still before tax and shipping).
What is the difference between Net sales and Total sales in Shopify?
Net sales strips out tax and shipping; Total sales adds them back in. Net sales equals Gross minus discounts and returns. Total sales takes that Net figure and layers shipping, taxes, and duties on top. So Total is always the larger, tax-inclusive number.
Why is my Shopify Total sales higher than my bank deposit?
Because Total sales is revenue charged, not cash received. Your payout subtracts processing fees of roughly 2.9% plus 30¢ per order on Basic in the US, refunds, and any chargeback fees, and it settles as a batch of transactions rather than a single day's orders. The collected tax is also a liability you remit, not income you keep.
Should I report Gross sales or Total sales for taxes?
Total sales, since it is the only tier that captures the tax you actually collected and are obligated to remit. Talk to your accountant about your jurisdiction, but the Total sales row is where the tax portion is isolated for filing.
Does tax-inclusive pricing change how Total sales works?
The internal math is the same — Total sales still separates the tax component even when the displayed price already includes it. What changes is the customer-facing presentation: with tax-inclusive pricing the tax is baked into the sticker price rather than added at checkout, so your Gross figure and Total figure sit closer together on the surface.