Specific sales on second-hand platforms must be included in the income tax return and are taxed accordingly, provided that a profit has been made along the way. Whether on Wallapop, Vinted or MilAnuncios, as well as other lesser-known platforms. It is nothing new, but this year the Tax Agency will have more data than ever due to the entry into force of information and control mechanisms with the portals. Whoever wants to hide will have a harder time…
When selling online the existence of a profit is what makes the difference. To calculate it, the price for which the object was purchased is taken as a reference and compared with its sale price. If the sale price is higher, there is a profit that must be declared. For example, if a sticker was sold for 1,000 euros when it had cost 50 cents, the 999.50 euros profit is declared.
The same can happen with clothing, if you have purchased a limited edition garment that has subsequently been in high demand. If 50 euros were paid for it and it was sold for 120, the 70 euros of margin must be declared and taxed. “The law tells us that sales derived from consumption, as they are called, must be declared when they have generated a profit,” says Paula Urcera, tax expert and spokesperson for TaxDown.
In any case, “the normal thing is to sell small, cheap things and for a lower price than you bought them.” Sales at a loss cannot be included in the declaration: “There is no compensation mechanism like in the sale of shares,” says Urcera.
If there has been a profit, these types of sales are declared in the section “Equity gains and losses derived from transfers of other assets”, from box 1624 of the declaration onwards. The recommendation is to include it as “Other assets (assets or rights) not assigned to economic activities.” If you have several transactions to declare, they must be added at the top, clicking on “Register asset element”. You must detail the purchase and sale date and the price at both times.
More than one may be tempted not to declare anything. But there is one factor to take into account: since this year, the Tax Agency has much more data on the operations carried out by users on the platforms. With the implementation of the European DAC7 directive, when a user exceeds 2,000 euros in sales in the year or makes more than 30 transactions, the portals are obliged to request their personal data (name, NIF, residence, bank IBAN…) and communicate the information to the tax authorities. “There is an attempt to carry out more rigid and increasingly exhaustive control,” says the expert.
The platforms had until this week to send the information for 2023, so in this income “they will have more data on these operations.” What does it mean for the user? If, with the new submissions by the DAC7 regulations, the Tax Agency finds out more operations than we declared and demands that they be included, a problem may arise. “If you’re not going to be able to justify that you’re selling at a loss, it’s going to have to be included in the statement,” he warns.
Since people do not usually keep receipts for everything they buy to prove that there has been a loss – and they are not obliged to pay taxes – it will be necessary to be inventive in some cases. “For example, if we sell a pair of pants for 3 euros without proof of the initial purchase, by going to that brand’s website we can demonstrate that they do not have anything for that price. That is, even if you do not have proof, which is the most easy to justify it, yes you could fight with the Treasury stating that there is nothing below the price at which we sold it, and therefore I cannot be making money,” he points out.
The data provided by the platforms will serve the Tax Agency more than anything to detect users who carry out undeclared economic activities, revealing fraud. Like those who provide services – removals, cleaning, repairs – that are not declared later. If they actually carry out an economic activity on a regular basis, they should be registered as self-employed, with a VAT declaration and compliance with other responsibilities of the regime.
Profits from second-hand sales are taxed in the savings tax base. Just this year the rates that apply have changed. For profits up to 6,000 euros, 19% is taxed, which would be where the majority of the population is in these cases of sales. Between 6,001 euros and 50,000 the rate is 21%, while between 50,001 and 200,000 euros it is 23%. The novelty comes from 200,000 euros, which will be taxed at 27%, when last year it was 26%, and from 300,000 euros, at 28%, a new bracket.
