Setting QuickBooks Online Deposit Import Tax Account for Payout Processing

gennady · April 24, 2026, 9:37pm

Overview

When merchants sell internationally and collect import taxes from buyers at checkout through Shopify’s Duties and Import Taxes feature, those collected taxes are deducted from each payout. When weintegrate creates the corresponding bank deposit record in QuickBooks Online, the Import Tax Account setting tells it which QBO account to post that deduction to.

This setting is available on Professional and higher we integrate subscriptions. On lower plans the field is visible but disabled, and we integrate falls back to the Processing Fees Account.

Why This Setting Matters

Correct account classification. Import tax is a pass-through amount — you collected it from the buyer and owe it to the relevant customs or tax authority. Posting it to a dedicated Other Current Liability account (rather than an expense account) correctly reflects that this money was never yours to keep.
Clean audit trail. A dedicated account makes it immediately clear in QBO how much import tax moved through your books in any period, which is essential when preparing cross-border tax remittances or responding to customs inquiries.
Reconciliation accuracy. When the import tax deduction appears on its own line in the deposit record, the difference between your gross sales and your net bank deposit is fully explained, making reconciliation faster and more reliable.
Optional class tracking. If you use QuickBooks Online Classes, you can assign a class to the import tax line for multi-location or departmental reporting.

Background: What Is Import Tax in Shopify?

When you sell physical goods to international buyers, customs authorities in the destination country may charge import taxes (also referred to as import VAT, customs import tax, or duties) on those shipments. Shopify’s Duties and Import Taxes feature allows eligible merchants to collect these charges from buyers at checkout rather than having the buyer pay them upon delivery.

The collected import taxes appear in your Shopify payout as a deduction — Shopify has collected them from your buyer, and the merchant is responsible for remitting them to the relevant customs or tax authority.

Because this is money collected on behalf of an authority (not a merchant expense and not your income), the correct QuickBooks Online account type is Other Current Liability. This distinguishes import tax from merchant-paid costs like shipping label fees, which belong on an Expense account.

Prerequisites

Before configuring this setting, make sure you have the following in place:

Professional subscription plan or higher. This setting is available on Professional and higher plans. On lower plans the field is visible but disabled, and weintegrate falls back to the Processing Fees Account.
A QBO Other Current Liability account for import tax. Create an account in QuickBooks Online of type Other Current Liability to represent collected import taxes. Common names include Import Tax Payable, Import VAT Payable, or Customs Tax Collected. If no suitable account exists, create one in QBO before returning to this page.
An active Shopify → QuickBooks Online connection. This setting is part of the Deposits configuration for a specific store connection.
QBO Classes configured (optional). If you want to assign a QBO Class to the import tax line, make sure at least one Class exists in your QuickBooks Online company. The Assign Class to Import Tax checkbox is automatically disabled when no Classes are found.

How to Configure the Import Tax Account

Step 1 — Open your Shopify connection settings

Log in to your weintegrate account.
Go to Connections in the left navigation and click the name of your Shopify store.
Select the Sales & Deposits tab (or advance to Step 7 — Sales Settings if you are in the setup wizard).

Step 2 — Locate the Deposits section

Scroll down past the Sales, Payment Method, and Conditional Sync Rules settings until you reach the Deposits section.

Step 3 — Select the Import Tax Account

Find the Import Tax Account dropdown.
Click the dropdown and start typing to filter your QBO Other Current Liability accounts.
Select the account you want weintegrate to use when posting import tax deductions on each deposit record.

Note: This field is required on Professional and higher plans. The Save button (or the Next button in the setup wizard) will remain disabled until you make a selection here.

Class

Step 4 — Assign a Class to Import Tax (optional) {class}

If you use QBO Classes and want to tag the import tax line with a specific class:

Check Assign Class to Import Tax. A Set Class as dropdown appears beneath it.
Select the class you want applied to the import tax line item on every deposit record.

If the Assign Class to Import Tax checkbox is grayed out, either your plan does not include this feature or your QuickBooks Online company has no Classes configured. See the Prerequisites section above.

Step 5 — Save your settings

Review your selections
Click Save or Next (depending on whether you’re in the setup wizard or editing an existing connection)
Your import tax mapping will be applied to all future transactions

What Happens After Configuration

Once saved, weintegrate applies the account mapping to every payout deposit synced from Shopify:

Each deposit record created in QBO that includes an import tax deduction will have a corresponding line item posted to the Other Current Liability account you selected. The amount matches exactly what Shopify deducted from the payout for collected import taxes.
If no import tax was deducted from a payout (for example, all orders during that payout period shipped domestically, or the Duties and Import Taxes feature was not active), no line item for this account is added to that deposit record.
If class assignment is enabled, the import tax line item on every deposit record is tagged with the class you selected.
Payouts synced before you changed the setting are not retroactively updated. The new account applies only to deposit records created after you save.

Troubleshooting

The Import Tax Account field is grayed out.
This setting is available on Professional and higher plans. On lower plans the field is visible but disabled, and weintegrate falls back to the Processing Fees Account. Upgrade your plan to enable it.

The Import Tax Account dropdown is empty.
weintegrate populates this dropdown from the Other Current Liability accounts in your connected QuickBooks Online company. If the list is empty, no accounts of that type exist in QBO yet. Create an Other Current Liability account in QBO first, then return to this page.

The Save button stays disabled even after I selected an account.
Check that all other required fields in the Deposits section are also set — Deposit Bank Account, Processing Fees Account, Shipping Label Fees Account, Import Tax Account, and Customs Duty Account are all required on Professional and higher plans. Any one of them left at the placeholder will keep Save disabled.

The Assign Class to Import Tax checkbox is grayed out.
Either your plan does not include this feature, or no Classes are configured in your QuickBooks Online company. To add Classes, go to Account and Settings → Advanced → Categories → Track classes in QBO, then return to this page.

I don’t see an import tax line on my QBO deposit record.
Not all payouts include an import tax deduction. This only appears when Shopify collected import taxes from international buyers during that payout period via the Duties and Import Taxes feature. Check the payout detail in Shopify Admin to confirm whether an import tax deduction was included.

Import tax is posting to the wrong account.
Update the Import Tax Account dropdown to the correct account and save. The change takes effect for all deposit records created after you save. Historical deposits already in QBO will need to be corrected manually.