Selling on Vinted, Marktplaats or Etsy: when do you owe tax?

DAC7: when a platform reports you

A platform must pass on your data, including revenue and bank account, once you complete 30 or more sales in a calendar year or receive 2,000 euros or more in total. The report says nothing about tax liability; it is merely information that lets the tax authority check for structural earnings. Below both limits the platform does not report you, but that does not make taxable income untaxed: the reporting threshold and the tax rules are entirely separate.

Selling your own belongings is not income

Selling clothes you wore, your old phone or the games console from the attic means selling private assets. Receiving money for them does not make it income; you are converting belongings into cash, usually at a loss against what you once paid. No income tax and no VAT is due, even if you happen to exceed 2,000 euros or 30 sales because of one big clear-out.

When it does become taxable

The boundary lies in the purpose and structure of your selling. Buying to resell at a profit, making products to sell, or selling so often and so organised that you reasonably expect gain, creates a source of income for tax purposes. That often starts as other-activities income and, with sufficient scale, grows into business profit, with all its duties and benefits. How that transition works is covered in from side earnings to business.

VAT kicks in sooner than income tax

For VAT you are an entrepreneur once you supply regularly and independently for payment, profit or not. Structural traders must register with the tax authority, even at modest amounts. Fortunately there is the small business scheme: below 20,000 euros of annual revenue you can request exemption from VAT filing. Note that the income tax and VAT assessments are separate, as explained in entrepreneur for income tax or VAT. Selling through your own web shop or internationally? Also read bookkeeping for e-commerce.

Frequently asked questions