Amazon and eBay documents your tax adviser needs: the list

You give your tax adviser four groups of documents for one tax year. They are the sales reports from Amazon and eBay, the payment and statement reports with the fee invoices, your purchase and expense invoices with the bank statements, and the returns you have already filed. The table below shows which file feeds which tax. The list is a starting point; it does not promise to cover every case.

Only VAT GPT sends all three returns itself. Of the tools we compare, according to the providers' own pages (checked 3 November 2026), only VAT GPT submits the OSS return itself to the BZSt, plus the VAT advance return and the annual VAT return via ELSTER to the tax office, calculated from your Amazon and eBay reports. You do not have to go into Mein ELSTER or the BZStOnline portal yourself. With the others, you upload the OSS file in the BZStOnline portal yourself, or a tax adviser or the provider's service files it for you. Sending needs Pro. OSS software compared

Last updated: 29 October 2026

In brief

Amazon: the VAT Transactions Report (AVTR, in the German interface "Umsatzsteuer-Transaktionsbericht") as CSV, the payments report, the fee invoices from the tax documents.
eBay: the order report from Seller Hub Pro, the transaction report as CSV, the settlement reports ("Abrechnungsberichte") as PDF, the invoices as PDF and CSV.
Plus: purchase and expense invoices, bank statements, the VAT returns and OSS returns you have filed.
Period: one AVTR covers at most 93 consecutive days, and eBay says the transaction report goes back 90 days. Download both as you go, not in January.

Which documents belong on the list?

Amazon

VAT Transactions Report (AVTR), as CSV. According to Amazon, AVTR data is used to support your European VAT reporting. How to get it: Download the Amazon VAT report.
The payments report (Amazon's "reports on payment events"). It shows the money movements between Amazon and you: Amazon settlement report explained.
Fee invoices. According to Amazon, individual fee invoices remain available in the tax documents.

eBay

Order report: in the Reports tab of Seller Hub Pro, source "Orders", a period of 1 to 90 days. The columns: eBay report columns explained.
Transaction report: account movements as CSV. How to get it: Download the eBay transaction report.
Settlement report ("Abrechnungsbericht"): the monthly overview of account movements as PDF. According to eBay it is not an invoice.
Invoice: eBay issues it for services provided. It lists the seller fees and shows the applicable taxes on fees and other costs; the summary is a PDF, the detailed view a CSV. If there are invoice corrections, they belong in the pile.

From you

Purchase and expense invoices: for goods, packaging, software, travel. To deduct the VAT another business charges you, you need an invoice under sections 14 and 14a UStG (§ 15(1) sentence 1 no. 1 UStG).
Bank statements of your business account and payment providers.
Copies of what you have already filed: the VAT returns and OSS returns of the year.

What this means for you: collect the Amazon and eBay reports, the fee invoices and your own invoices and statements in one place.

Which file belongs to which tax?

Tax	Meant for	More
VAT return and annual VAT return	Amazon AVTR, eBay order and transaction reports	VAT return from the Amazon VAT report
OSS return	Amazon AVTR, eBay order report	OSS return for Amazon and eBay with VAT GPT
Input VAT	purchase invoices, fee invoices from Amazon and eBay	Deduct Amazon fees, eBay fees and input VAT
EÜR (income and expense statement)	payments report, settlement reports, invoices, bank statements	All taxes in one place
Trade tax and income tax	profit from the EÜR	All taxes in one place

If you are not required to keep books and do not keep them, you can work out profit in the EÜR as the surplus of business income over business expenses (§ 4(3) sentence 1 EStG). The payment and settlement reports, the invoices and the bank statements are its basis. The column "Meant for" is this article's classification; which document your adviser needs for your case is their decision.

What this means for you: match each file to its tax with the table before you hand it over.

Which period, which format?

A whole year: for the AVTR, Amazon's help page lets you create reports for any period from August 2016, at most 93 consecutive days per report. A year therefore takes several reports in a row, for example one per quarter.
eBay: the transaction report goes back 90 days according to eBay, which recommends downloading it every quarter. Settlement reports stay available for download for 10 years from the issue date.
CSV unchanged: keep the downloaded file as it is and give your adviser a copy. Whatever you change in Excel, save under another name.
Retention: you keep invoices for eight years (§ 14b(1) UStG), accounting vouchers also eight, books and records ten years (§ 147(3) AO); none of these periods ends while the documents matter for a tax whose assessment period has not yet expired (§ 147(3) sentence 5 AO). Which period applies to which file: How long to keep receipts. Whether a report is an accounting voucher depends on the case; when in doubt, take the longer period.

What this means for you: download the reports as you go and keep the original CSV files unchanged.

What do you settle with your adviser?

The reports alone do not answer these. Settle them before the hand-over:

Which taxes does the adviser take on, which do you file yourself?
Who knows which deadline, and who receives the mail from the tax office?
In which form does the adviser want the files: original CSVs, a DATEV booking batch, or both?
How does the adviser treat special cases such as commingling, refunds or stock abroad?

What this means for you: clear these four questions with your adviser before the hand-over.

Common mistakes

Sending only the payments report. It shows money movements; the taxable sales by country are in the AVTR.
Waiting until January to fetch the eBay reports. The transaction report goes back 90 days according to eBay.
Forgetting the fee invoices. For input VAT on fees that Amazon or eBay charge you VAT on, you need the invoice.
Leaving out the returns you filed. Your adviser cannot then compare against what has been reported.
Filing a renamed or reworked Excel file as the original. Keep the original file.

What this means for you: hand over the AVTR, the fee invoices and your filed returns, not just the payments report.

How VAT GPT helps

VAT GPT is the tax software for online sellers, freelancers and small businesses in Germany. It calculates and files in one place, in this order:

your OSS return
VAT
EÜR
trade tax
income tax

Upload: You upload your Amazon and eBay CSV reports and your invoices.
Check: The AI reads amounts, countries and tax rates, and VAT GPT breaks the VAT down for Germany and the EU (OSS). You check and confirm.
Send: With VAT GPT Pro you send the VAT return through ELSTER and the OSS return to the BZSt. The EÜR, trade tax and income tax returns are made in the same account.

For the hand-over you start the data export in the settings: a ZIP file with your income and expense documents as original files, an overview table for each, a DATEV booking-batch file for your tax accountant, your uploaded CSV reports and a LIESMICH.txt (README). The account mapping in the DATEV file is a suggestion that you confirm with your tax accountant. How the upload works: Upload Amazon and eBay reports to VAT GPT.

There is Free, Go (30 days free with all Pro features) and Pro. Try for free now

Frequently asked questions

Which Amazon report does the adviser need for VAT? The VAT Transactions Report (AVTR); you add the payments report for the EÜR and for checking your payouts.

Is one annual report enough? Not for the AVTR: one report covers at most 93 consecutive days.

How long do I keep the files? Invoices and accounting vouchers eight years, books and records ten years, and longer while the assessment period for the tax concerned is still running; details in How long to keep receipts.

Do I need the eBay settlement report too? eBay describes it as the monthly overview of account movements, but not as an invoice. You document input VAT on fees with the invoice.