Etsy seller MTD records: which files do you actually use?

The short answer

Use Etsy's order and payment-sales data to support customer sales, record Etsy fees and applicable refunds separately, then use monthly statements and the Deposits CSV to reconcile the net amount reaching the bank. Do not substitute the payout, Shop Stats revenue or Etsy's calendar-year platform-reporting figure for UK tax-year turnover.

HMRC says MTD digital records need an amount, date and category. It also warns that some bank-feed transactions do not show the full income and may need separate digital records. Etsy's files supply evidence and inputs; your accounting basis, period, categories and checks determine the records.

This workflow covers an Etsy trade run by a UK sole trader. Whether MTD for Income Tax applies depends on combined qualifying self-employment and property income—not one Etsy shop or payout. Start with the QuarterReady threshold guide and confirm the result with HMRC's official guidance and checker.

What Etsy lets a seller download

Order and Etsy Payments files

Etsy's current help path is Shop Manager → Settings → Options → Download Data → Orders. Choose the CSV type, month and year; leaving the month blank produces a whole-year file. The documented options include:

• Order Items;
• Orders;
• Etsy Payments Sales;
• Etsy Payments Deposits.

Etsy's public download Help page names the four CSV types but does not provide a complete field-by-field schema or version guarantee. Inspect each current export's headers before mapping columns.

Monthly statement CSV

The current path is Shop Manager → Finances → Monthly statements → View all monthly statements. Select a year and month, choose Generate CSV, then follow the download link Etsy emails. Etsy describes this file as payment-account activity for the month, with fields including Type, Net, Fees & Taxes and Info.

Annual platform-reporting copy

Etsy says it provides the UK platform-reporting copy by 31 January where reporting applies. That document is a calendar-year compliance report, not a UK tax return. Its reported amount is after specified refunds, Etsy fees and Etsy-remitted taxes, while deductions are also reported separately. Etsy says the PDF includes physical items and made-to-order digital downloads but excludes instant-download digital files, so it can be incomplete even as a calendar-year cross-check. Do not infer your tax or MTD position from whether Etsy issued a report, and do not add the report to sales already in your books.

Which file does what

Orders is not a safe one-column total

Etsy documents order-value, discount, shipping, sales-tax, total and status information in its order data. It also says the Order Total does not subtract fully refunded or cancelled orders. That is enough reason not to sum one visible total without checking status, refunds and what each field includes.

Etsy Payments Sales is the sales-side cross-check

In a US reporting help article, Etsy documents a Gross column in this file; its currency guidance also says applied conversion rates appear in the sales CSV. Those facts describe the export, not UK tax treatment. Refunds, taxes, accounting basis, timing and field definitions still matter, so use the file alongside order and statement data rather than in isolation.

If you sync in-person Etsy sales through Square, preserve the Square transaction export separately. Etsy says payments that were not processed through Etsy Payments—including Square—are absent from the Etsy Payments total.

The monthly statement explains movement

The monthly statement is where sales, fees, refunds, credits and other payment-account entries can be followed. Etsy's Info field may also indicate that sale funds are not yet available. This is valuable when a sale exists but the money has not reached the next deposit.

Deposits explains the bank, not turnover

Etsy documents the Deposits CSV as containing a date, amount, currency, status and masked bank-account ending digits. The amount represents funds available after the deductions and holds that affect settlement. Use it to match the bank deposit; do not use it as customer sales.

Build the UK tax year deliberately

Etsy's download selector is organised by calendar month and year, while a standard UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. A 2026/27 tax-year record therefore needs part of the 2026 exports and part of the 2027 exports, with the boundary transactions filtered correctly.

If the accounting period ends on 5 April, HMRC says digital records start on 6 April and standard update periods apply. If it ends on 31 March, records start on 1 April and calendar update periods apply. Configure this in compatible software before sending the first update.

Timing also depends on the accounting basis: current Self Assessment notes distinguish income received under cash basis from income earned under traditional accounting. Do not assume that the order date or payout date always controls. Confirm the basis and treatment that apply to you.

Payment Account Recent activities dates are shown in the seller's local timezone. Etsy says hourly Stats for today, yesterday and the previous two days use your timezone; other Stats ranges appear in UTC unless you change the Stats timezone. Etsy does not state there that every CSV uses the same timezone, so check transactions around midnight and the 5/6 April boundary.

A repeatable monthly MTD workflow

1. Download the source files. Save Orders, Etsy Payments Sales, Etsy Payments Deposits and the month's payment-account statement in a read-only source folder. Add Order Items when SKU or item-level detail is needed, and Square data if you use the integration.
2. Confirm period and currency. Record the export date, month, shop currency, payment-account currency and any conversion-rate fields used.
3. Build the sales records. Build turnover before taking off business expenses, but do not automatically sum every Gross or Order Total field. Separately identify refunds, Etsy fees and taxes Etsy collects or remits, then apply the business's accounting basis and VAT treatment consistently.
4. Record movements separately. Use statements and supporting documents for applicable refunds, Etsy fees, credits, taxes and other adjustments. Do not deduct the same fee twice.
5. Reconcile the deposits. Match the Deposits CSV to the bank and explain timing, reserves, availability holds and currency differences.
6. Preserve the bridge. Keep formulas or imported transformations linking the untouched source data to the record totals and settlement check.
7. Review before submission. Check duplicate imports, missing months, boundary dates and category totals before compatible software creates the quarterly update.

HMRC lists CSV importing/exporting and file downloading/uploading as digital-link methods when moving digital records between relevant software; downloading an Etsy file alone does not create compliant MTD records. Once a digital record has entered the MTD chain and has been included in a quarterly update, HMRC says it must not be manually moved by copy-and-paste. Use the spreadsheet and bridging-software guide to design that route.

Use the HMRC software guidance and finder for compatible products. HMRC says listed products have passed its recognition process, but it does not recommend any product or provider.

Etsy-specific traps to check

• A refund does not automatically cancel an order. Etsy says transaction and processing fees are credited for the refunded transaction; cancelling also credits the listing fee.
• Available does not mean sold today. Reserves or delayed availability can move cash into a later deposit.
• Stats is not a ledger. Etsy defines Shop Stats revenue differently from an all-fields order export and uses UTC for longer Stats periods.
• Currency conversion changes the settlement. When listing and payment-account currencies differ, Etsy documents a conversion fee and applied rates in sales data.
• VAT documents may use USD. Etsy says UK seller-fee VAT invoices are PDF summaries in US dollars. Do not mix those amounts straight into a GBP reconciliation.
• The annual reporting PDF uses a calendar year. It cannot replace the 6 April to 5 April record set.

The minimum download checklist

1. Orders for order-level totals and status, plus Order Items when item or SKU detail is needed;
2. Etsy Payments Sales for payment-side sales detail;
3. the monthly statement for payment-account movements;
4. Etsy Payments Deposits for the bank match;
5. refund, VAT and other supporting documents where relevant;
6. any annual platform-reporting PDF Etsy issued to you, where reporting applied, for the calendar-year cross-check.

Then use the QuarterReady payout worksheet to investigate a mismatch, and read platform report vs MTD qualifying income before using the annual reporting figure in a threshold decision.