Wie bereitet ihr mich konkret vor?

Wir gleichen Amazon-Meldungen, Settlement Reports und DATEV ab, lösen Sammelbuchungen bis zur Bestellung auf und dokumentieren den Ablauf. Differenzen klären wir vorher, nicht vor dem Prüfer.

Wie viel Vorwarnung bekomme ich?

Wenig. Die Anordnung kommt in der Regel nur wenige Wochen vor Prüfungsbeginn. Deshalb bereiten wir vor, bevor sie im Briefkasten liegt.

Welche Jahre schaut der Prüfer an?

Meist mehrere zusammenhängende Jahre auf einmal. Bei Verdacht kann der Zeitraum wachsen. Deshalb lohnt es sich, Altjahre jetzt sauber zu haben, nicht erst bei der Anordnung.

Darf der Prüfer in mein Shop- und Warenwirtschaftssystem?

Ja. Er kann selbst ins System schauen, Auswertungen verlangen oder einen Datenexport anfordern. Wir bereiten alle drei Wege vor, damit nichts nachgereicht werden muss.

Was passiert, wenn Aufzeichnungen fehlen?

Dann schätzt das Finanzamt, und zwar selten zu deinem Vorteil. Wer den Datenzugriff verweigert, zahlt zusätzlich Strafen. Fehlende Aufzeichnungen schließen wir vorher, soweit möglich.

Was meldet meine Plattform an die Finanzverwaltung?

Amazon, eBay und Etsy melden deine Umsätze und Verkäufe automatisch an die Finanzverwaltung. Der Prüfer hat diese Zahlen, bevor er dich fragt. Wir gleichen deine Buchhaltung vorher damit ab.

Was passiert, wenn ich Unterlagen zu spät liefere?

Dann kann das Finanzamt Strafzahlungen pro Tag festsetzen. Deshalb liegen Belege und Daten bei uns griffbereit, bevor der Prüfer fragt.

Was fordert der Prüfer im E-Commerce konkret an?

Settlement Reports, Payment-Abrechnungen, Bestelldaten, DATEV-Bestand, Kontenzuordnung und Belegarchiv, meist als Datenzugriff. Dazu den dokumentierten Ablauf, wie Daten aus Shop und Marktplatz in die Buchhaltung kommen. Fehlt er, bewertet der Prüfer deine Prozesse nach eigener Annahme.

Tax audit | E-commerce | Preparation

Prepare for a tax audit before the tax office starts asking

We review settlement reports, integrations and your document archive and close the gaps auditors open first in e-commerce. When the audit order arrives, everything is already in place.

Prepare for the audit

Free & no obligation

15 minutes

No preparation required

200+ clients. 100% e-commerce focus on Amazon, Shopify, D2C and multichannel.

Where do e-commerce tax audits go wrong?

E-commerce audits are rarely about the tax rate. They are about whether every Amazon payout can be traced down to the individual order.

The auditor sees your platform data first.

Amazon, eBay and Etsy report your sales to the tax authorities automatically. If your return deviates from those figures, the audit starts with you, not with the platform.

Aggregated settlements that cannot be broken down stand out.

Booking Amazon's payout, fees and returns as a single entry saves time day to day. But the auditor accesses your system directly and wants every payout broken down to the order. If that is not possible, this is exactly where the questions start.

Without a documented process there is no evidence.

You need to be able to show how data from Shopify and Amazon reaches your bookkeeping. Without that evidence the tax office estimates on its own, and that gets expensive.

What does SPIELMANN handle in a tax audit?

We prepare data, documents and documentation so the auditor finds what they request. The audit order usually arrives only a few weeks in advance. That is not enough time to rework several years, which is why we start earlier.

A dry run before the audit order

We work through the typical request list before it arrives. We document differences in advance instead of explaining them to the auditor.

Review shop, marketplace and payment data
Clarify account mapping
Cross-check documents and data quality

Prepare data access properly

We check your DATEV records, account mapping and document archive in advance. Whether the auditor looks into the system directly or asks for a data export, everything is complete.

Cross-check platform reports
Reconcile settlement reports
Document differences

Escalation when it gets tight

If a gap remains, we work out with you how to correct it properly before the auditor finds it. The earlier, the more options you have.

"Most sellers do not have bad bookkeeping, they have bookkeeping that does not record Amazon's payout in detail at the individual transaction level. That is exactly what the auditor asks for first." - Marius Gotzen, Partner, SPIELMANN Steuerberatung GmbH

Define responsibilities
File corrections properly
Assess correction routes

Status check in 15 minutes

We review settlement data, integrations and your document archive and show you what would not hold up in an audit today.

Prepare for the audit

Free & no obligation

15 minutes

No preparation required

Smiling man with glasses and beard wearing a blue suit jacket and white shirt, sitting at a table with an open book and laptop.

Wait and see, a standard tax firm or SPIELMANN?

An audit takes more than annual financial statements. What matters is who can explain the data chain from Amazon to the booking. In e-commerce the outcome depends on settlement data, warehouses elsewhere in the EU and the tax logic in your shop.

Wait and see

Costs nothing at first. When the audit order arrives, there is no time left to get things in order.

Standard tax firm

Can support an audit, but often lacks depth on marketplace data, settlement reports and integrations.

SPIELMANN

Connects Amazon, Shopify and payment data with DATEV and shows you in advance where an audit would snag.

Smiling man with glasses and beard wearing a light blue dress shirt looking to the right.

Everything is ready before the auditor arrives.

Platform reports, settlement data and documents are reconciled, data access is prepared, responsibilities are assigned. The audit runs on evidence instead of assumptions. That is the difference between a result and an estimate.

"A switch rarely fails because of tax, it fails on the data handover. We coordinate that, which is why it takes 4 weeks instead of 4 months." - Marius Gotzen, Partner

Here is how it works: an introductory call in 15 minutes, a switch typically in 4 weeks, your effort under 30 minutes. We handle the communication with your previous advisor.

Questions about the audit? We will clear that up in 15 minutes in an introductory call.

Evidence complete

Clear data foundation

Fewer queries ahead of deadlines

Bookkeeping becomes management,
with figures that are traceable every month.

FAQs on tax audits

Answered briefly: the key questions on process, data access and evidence.

Prepare for the audit

How exactly do you prepare me?

We reconcile Amazon reports, settlement reports and DATEV, break aggregated entries down to the order and document the process. We resolve differences beforehand, not in front of the auditor.

How much warning do I get?

Not much. The audit order usually arrives only a few weeks before the audit starts. That is why we prepare before it lands in your mailbox.

Which years does the auditor look at?

Usually several consecutive years at once. If there is suspicion, the period can grow. That is why it pays to have older years clean now, not only when the order arrives.

Can the auditor access my shop and inventory management system?

Yes. They can look into the system themselves, request evaluations or ask for a data export. We prepare all three routes so nothing has to be submitted later.

What happens if records are missing?

Then the tax office estimates, and rarely in your favor. Anyone who refuses data access also pays penalties. We close missing records beforehand as far as possible.

What does my platform report to the tax authorities?

Amazon, eBay and Etsy report your revenue and sales to the tax authorities automatically. The auditor has those figures before asking you. We reconcile your bookkeeping with them in advance.

What happens if I supply documents late?

Then the tax office can impose penalties per day. That is why we keep documents and data ready before the auditor asks.

What exactly does the auditor request in e-commerce?

Settlement reports, payment statements, order data, DATEV records, account mapping and the document archive, usually as data access. Plus the documented process showing how data from shop and marketplace reaches your bookkeeping. Without it, the auditor judges your processes on their own assumptions.

Technical Background: E-Commerce Tax Audits

What a tax audit in online retail is based on.

Audit order, Section 197 (1) AO

The order must be received a reasonable time before the audit begins, generally two weeks under the administrative guideline, four for large businesses. Usually no more than three consecutive tax periods are audited.

Data access, Section 147 (6) AO and Section 146 (2c) AO

The auditor has three access methods: direct system access, machine evaluation as specified, and data transfer in an evaluable format (Z1, Z2, Z3). Refusing access risks a delay penalty of 2,500 to 250,000 euros.

Platform reporting, Section 13 (1) PStTG

Reporting platforms transmit sales to the Federal Central Tax Office by January 31 of the following year. Reporting applies from 30 sales or 2,000 euros in remuneration; below that, the exemption under Section 4 (5) no. 4 PStTG applies.

Estimation, Section 162 AO

If records are missing entirely or unusable, the tax office estimates the tax base. In doing so, it is rebuttably presumed that income was underreported.

Qualified cooperation request, Section 200a AO

Six months after notification of the audit order, the tax office may demand cooperation with a one-month deadline. Afterwards, 75 euros per calendar day accrue, up to 150 days; in serious cases, a surcharge of up to 25,000 euros daily.

Interest and voluntary disclosure, Section 233a (2) AO and Section 371 AO

Interest begins to accrue 15 months after year-end at a rate of 0.15 percent per month. A voluntary disclosure is barred once the audit order is announced, but only for the scope ordered.

Prepare for a tax audit before the tax office starts asking

200+ clients. 100% e-commerce focus on Amazon, Shopify, D2C and multichannel.

Where do e-commerce tax audits go wrong?

The auditor sees your platform data first.

Aggregated settlements that cannot be broken down stand out.

Without a documented process there is no evidence.