DAC7 UK: turn a calendar-year report into tax-year records

You receive an annual statement from a marketplace and assume it is the figure HMRC wants on your tax return. The period printed at the top is the first thing to check. A report can be completely correct for platform reporting and still be the wrong total for your personal tax year.

This guide is for UK sole traders and small shop owners reconciling platform sales. It focuses on the date bridge and supporting records, rather than repeating the trading-allowance calculation. The HMRC pages were checked on 14 October 2026. Companies and other accounting arrangements need their applicable rules; a personal tax-year worksheet should not be applied to them automatically.

Why does my statement use January rather than April? #

HMRC says UK digital platform operators collect information yearly and report it by the following January. Sellers receive a copy. The statement shows calendar-year earnings after fees, commission or taxes deducted by the platform, broken down into calendar quarters. That reporting structure serves information exchange; it does not change the period for your personal income tax calculation.

For example, the calendar-year report for 2026 concerns January through December 2026 and is due from the operator by 31 January 2027. The UK personal tax year 2025–26 ended on 5 April 2026. Most of the activity in that 2026 platform report therefore belongs to a later personal tax year, subject to the accounting treatment of the individual transactions.

Treat the report as one source in your reconciliation. Keep its title, reporting year and the platform that issued it. Do not rename it tax-year income simply because it arrived around a tax-return deadline. A clear label prevents the same mistake when you or your bookkeeper opens the file again next year.

Which records do I need for the 2025–26 tax year? #

Where your records follow the personal tax year, you need the relevant income and expenses from 6 April 2025 through 5 April 2026. That requires information spanning two calendar years. The following table is a date map; the precise recognition of an item still depends on the accounting method you use.

A quarter-level statement is not enough for the April boundary. The second calendar quarter starts on 1 April, whereas the personal tax year starts on 6 April. You cannot safely allocate the quarter by taking a fixed proportion: your sales may be uneven, and refunds or payment delays may sit on different dates. Download the underlying activity records.

Do not wait for the full 2026 annual report to reconstruct the January-to-early-April part. Use the transaction exports, invoices and payment records already available for that period. The annual report is a later cross-check. HMRC explicitly says platform reports do not replace normal business records or tax calculations.

Should I use the order date, invoice date or payment date? #

HMRC’s self-employed records guidance says cash basis became the default accounting method from the 2024–25 tax year. You must opt out if you want traditional accounting or cannot use cash basis. Under cash basis, income and expenses are recorded when money is received or a bill is paid. Traditional accounting uses the relevant invoice or bill dates instead.

Record several dates rather than deleting those you do not immediately need: order accepted, invoice issued, platform credit, refund and payment. Then apply your chosen accounting method consistently. A platform statement may use paid or credited amounts, which does not by itself resolve every question about when you received money for your own accounts.

If a payment is held, becomes available in a wallet or is transferred later to your bank, retain that sequence and ask your bookkeeper how it fits your method. Moving a bank transfer into April merely to match a report is not an accounting policy. Your reconciliation should explain the difference between records rather than hide it.

Also keep order identity separate from parcel identity. A combined dispatch can contain several sales, and one sale can need a replacement parcel. Neither the number of labels nor a tracking export is a complete income ledger. Link the financial record to the order, then attach the shipping records as supporting information.

How do I stop deducted fees being counted twice? #

Start by identifying what the platform total already excludes. HMRC describes a total after certain platform deductions, but a tax calculation needs the appropriate income and expense treatment. Keep the sales, refunds, fees and any taxes in separate columns. Do not call all differences commission, and do not assume every deducted tax can be offset against your own liability.

A common worksheet error is to import a net platform total as income and then subtract the same fees again from a separate expense export. Prevent that by recording where each amount has already been reflected. If your bookkeeping uses gross sales with separate fee expenses, build those figures from the underlying records instead of inventing a universal adjustment to the statement.

1. 1

   Identify the statement basis

   Write down the calendar year, the treatment of deductions and the platform’s explanation of the reported total.

2. 2

   Import dated activity

   Keep sales, refunds, fees and payment events linked by transaction or order identifiers.

3. 3

   Select the accounting period

   Apply your accounting method to the 6 April–5 April period rather than using the statement’s year label.

4. 4

   Check every expense source

   Mark whether a charge is already included in a net figure or remains a separate cost to assess.

5. 5

   Explain the remaining differences

   Document timing, currency and correction items with their supporting records.

Where do external packing and European fulfilment bills belong? #

A marketplace reports activity on its own platform. Your shop may separately pay for storage arrangements, packing, labels or outsourced dispatch. Those invoices do not become marketplace deductions simply because they relate to orders sold there. Keep them in your expense records and link them to the relevant business activity.

For an illustrative euro-denominated AirPost cost calculation, 48 small parcels at the recommended packing fee of €2.25 would mean €108.00 for the sender and €40.80 in platform fees. Together that is €148.80 before labels and other costs. These are constants checked on 14 October 2026, not a quoted UK carrier price or actual customer volume.

For UK accounts, use the currency and amounts on your actual invoices and keep the evidence for any conversion required by your accounting treatment. This euro example illustrates the components only. It does not supply a sterling exchange rate, promise your invoice currency or calculate an allowable deduction. Do not insert its euro total directly into a sterling tax return.

Postage charged to the customer is a separate part of the sale from the postage bill you pay. Review flat-rate versus calculated shipping for UK eBay shops if your listing settings cause confusion about those two amounts. Your shipping policy determines what the customer sees; the expense ledger records what your business actually pays.

Which January deadline am I looking at? #

Two events can share a January date without sharing a reporting period. HMRC’s current Self Assessment page gives 31 January 2027 as the normal online filing and payment deadline for 2025–26. The platform reporting deadline for calendar 2026 also falls in January 2027. Label both tasks with the period they cover, so one cannot be mistaken for completion of the other.

For first-time reporting, HMRC gives 5 October as the notification deadline for the previous tax year, with specific instructions for registering after that date. Since this article was checked after 5 October 2026, use the current late-registration guidance if that applies to you. Do not wait for another platform statement before checking an already existing filing obligation.

HMRC also requires self-employed records to be kept for at least five years after the relevant 31 January submission deadline, with separate provisions for very late returns. Keep the activity exports and your date-bridge worksheet alongside the report. They are what allow you to explain why the platform total differs from the amount used in your accounts.