How do I file a CDTFA sales tax return for Etsy sales under $300 in California?

Hi! If all of your sales were made through Etsy, the usual way to file a California CDTFA sales tax return is: report your Etsy “gross sales” for the period (what customers paid for the items, plus any shipping you charged), then take deductions so your “taxable sales” end up at $0—because Etsy (as a marketplace facilitator) is generally the one that collects and remits California sales tax on Etsy-facilitated sales shipped to California customers.

Here’s the clean, practical way to complete the filing when you only sell on Etsy:

1) Use “gross sales,” not payouts

• For CDTFA, start from your gross receipts (the customer-facing totals), not your Etsy deposit/payout.
• Don’t reduce sales by Etsy fees, Etsy Ads, postage you bought, materials, refunds of your own expenses, etc. Those are business expenses for income tax bookkeeping, not sales tax reporting.

2) What numbers to pull from Etsy
Use an Etsy report/export for the filing period (monthly/quarterly/yearly—whatever CDTFA assigned you). You want totals based on what buyers were charged:

• Item prices
• Shipping you charged buyers (if any)

Try to exclude “sales tax” that Etsy collected from customers (since that isn’t your revenue). If your Etsy report shows sales tax as a separate column/total, keep it separate.

3) Report “Total Sales,” then deduct what isn’t taxable to CDTFA
On the CDTFA return, you typically:

• Put your total gross sales for the period in Total Sales (items + shipping charged).
• Then take deductions so only the correct California-taxable amount remains.

Common deductions that apply to Etsy-only sellers are usually along these lines (the exact labels can vary a bit in the online filing screens):

• Sales delivered out of California / interstate commerce (orders shipped to other states): deduct those.
• Marketplace-facilitated sales (Etsy orders shipped to California where Etsy collected/remitted CA tax): deduct those as marketplace sales/“other” deduction for marketplace facilitator transactions.

End result for many Etsy-only California sellers:

• Total sales: your gross Etsy sales for the period
• Taxable sales: often $0 (because you deducted out-of-state shipments and deducted CA marketplace sales that Etsy handled)

4) Shipping charges and expenses (quick clarity)

• Shipping charged to the customer: CDTFA generally wants charges related to the sale included in gross sales, so include it in your “Total Sales” number. Whether it becomes taxable depends on how the sale is treated (CA taxable vs. deducted as out-of-state or marketplace-facilitated).
• Your shipping cost (postage you buy), Etsy fees, materials, Canva/Adobe, printer ink, etc.: these do not reduce what you report as sales on a sales tax return.

5) Don’t forget “use tax” (only if it applies)
Even if your taxable sales are $0, CDTFA returns often also ask about purchases subject to use tax (for example: you bought supplies/equipment from an out-of-state seller who didn’t charge CA tax). If that happened, you may need to report those purchases there. If all your purchases were taxed properly (or you didn’t have any), it may be $0.

One important note: If you truly only sell through Etsy and never make direct sales (your own site, in-person, wholesale, etc.), you typically shouldn’t end up owing California sales tax on those Etsy transactions—but since CDTFA already has you in a filing cycle, the key is filing on time and using the deductions so you don’t overpay.

If you tell me (1) your CDTFA filing frequency (quarterly vs annual), and (2) whether you had any California shipments at all in that period, I can walk you through exactly how to map your Etsy totals into the return fields without guessing.