Selling on Vinted, Marketplace or eBay… do you have to pay taxes?

More and more individuals are selling goods or offering services through online platforms such as Vinted, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Airbnb and other digital platforms.

As a result, one question comes up regularly:
are these revenues taxable?

The answer mainly depends on the nature of the activity.

Selling personal belongings: generally not taxable

Good news for private individuals:
occasional sales of used personal items are generally exempt from taxation.

Selling clothes, furniture, toys or other belongings you no longer use is normally considered part of the ordinary management of private assets.

Even when sales are made through an online platform, this does not automatically mean taxes are due.

However, the tax authorities now receive the information

Since the introduction of the European DAC7 directive, digital platforms are required to transmit certain information about their users to the tax authorities.

This includes:

• the number of sales made;
• the amounts received;
• the identity of the seller;
• the bank accounts used;
• the commissions retained by the platform.

For the sale of goods, this reporting obligation mainly applies when a user exceeds:

• 30 sales per year;
• and/or €2,000 of income per platform.

Important:
this does not automatically mean the income will be taxed.

These thresholds mainly allow the tax administration to identify situations that may involve a commercial or professional activity.

When can sales become taxable?

The tax authorities will mainly assess the intention behind the activity and the way it is organised.

For example, an activity may become taxable if a person:

• buys goods with the intention of reselling them for profit;
• regularly sells new products;
• organises a genuine commercial activity;
• invests in equipment or advertising;
• carries out frequent and structured sales.

In such cases, the income may be classified:

• either as miscellaneous income taxed at 33%;
• or as professional income subject to the normal progressive income tax rates.

A practical example

Someone occasionally selling children’s clothes on Vinted will generally not face any tax issues.

However, someone who regularly buys clothes or handbags for resale at a profit, manages inventory and publishes dozens of advertisements every week could be considered to be carrying out a professional activity.

Practical advice

Today, online platforms automatically share a significant amount of information with the tax authorities.
It is therefore important to be able to demonstrate the occasional and private nature of the sales.

Maintaining consistency between the goods sold, the sales volumes and the frequency of transactions can help avoid discussions during a tax audit.

When in doubt, it is always better to seek advice beforehand rather than waiting for questions from the tax authorities.