TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop Fees for Sellers, Explained (and How to Book Them)
By the SkyUp Ways accounting team ·
Short answer
TikTok Shop deducts a referral fee on each order, creator affiliate commissions where a creator drove the sale, shipping costs and refunds before it pays you. It also collects sales tax as marketplace facilitator. Record gross sales as income and each deduction as its own expense, so your margin is visible and the net still matches the payout.
The deductions on a TikTok Shop statement
- Referral fee: TikTok Shop's commission, a percentage of each order. Rates change, so check the current rate in Seller Center.
- Affiliate commission: the share paid to creators whose videos or lives drove the sale. Rates are set per product or campaign.
- Shipping: labels bought through TikTok Shop, net of any shipping charged to the customer.
- Refunds and returns: money returned to customers, with any fees refunded back.
- Sales tax: collected from customers and remitted by TikTok Shop, so it does not reach you.
Why sales grow but profit doesn't
Affiliate commissions are the cost most sellers underestimate. A viral video can multiply orders, but if every order carries a high creator commission plus the referral fee and shipping, the margin per order can be thin. You only see this if commissions are booked separately rather than netted off sales.
How to record TikTok Shop in QuickBooks
- Download the settlement or statement data for the payout period from Seller Center.
- Record gross sales and refunds as income, by product if you track inventory.
- Post referral fees, affiliate commissions and shipping to separate expense accounts.
- Treat marketplace-collected sales tax as a pass-through, not income.
- Match the net payout to the deposit in your bank account.
What to keep for tax time
- Gross sales and refunds for the year.
- Total referral fees, affiliate commissions and shipping costs.
- Cost of goods sold from your inventory records.
- The sales tax TikTok Shop collected on your behalf, for your CPA's records.
TikTok Shop bookkeeping
We book your TikTok Shop sales, commissions and fees in QuickBooks every month, ready for your CPA.
See how it works