New obligation to ebay sellers to finanzamet (subject to limits)
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2024 10:32 pm
I've been using Ebay for donkey's years both in the UK and Germany. Selling and buying. Selling sometimes to clear out with not a lot of money involved, but so when buying and selling to feed a hobby.
As a hobby photographer, I use these platforms fairly frequently to offload old gear, but also just to see if I like something and if not I'll sell on, or for a short period of time to use more expensive kit as a much cheaper way to rent. So, sometimes I might hold on to stuff for a few years, few months or even few weeks. Although I might make a profit occasionally, with one exception this is small change. Most often some you win some you lose.
Then I got hit by a notification I should submit my tax ID for provision to the Finanzamt due to the new limits of 30 sales per year or €2000+ in sales before Meldepflicht. Sales, not profit - which of course Ebay could not possibly know.
And it's true, in 2024, while I have sold less than 10 things. Few small things of low value and some old headphones for a couple hundred. But due to selling a camera and a lens, I am over over the 2000EUR limit by a few hundred. The most expensive thing was sold a week after buying it as I wanted to split the kit, keep some things and sell off the rest.
Now I really do want to have a clean-out, I feel I am stuck on all selling platforms as it's not just Ebay that has to report. Even my wife selling on all sorts of kids clothes, bikes etc. as they get older might not be caught foul of the financial limits but the number of items limit, so I can't just do this in her name - the obvious solution.
So now I am wondering how best to proceed. Do I even need to declare this to the Finanzamt? And as what? It's not income of any kind. As far as I am concerned, I am not engaged in a profit making business, and if I were the €200 profit I was surprised to make after selling on that camera again minus the stuff I kept should be capable of being offset by the €50 loss on the lens and from anything else. That 15 year old snowboard I plan to sell, easily a loss of €300+ if the original purchase price is what counts.
I don't intend to declare in my tax declaration. Let the Finanzamt come knocking. It's my own private stuff I'm selling. But I know even if the Finanzamt don't come knocking in 2025 - they could easily send me a letter 5 years later enquiring about "Gewerbliche" activity from 2024 - like they did my wife's undeclared interest on a foreign bank account 10 years after the fact... a more clear cut case!
But for now, I'm holding on to the more pricey things I'd actually like to sell this year until 2025. Which is mighty annoying. I'd actually rather like to try out some expensive used gear that could end up costing close to the €2k limit should I not get on with it or sell it later. But now I don't feel I can.
Anyone got any experience of how the Finanzamt have responded or acted in this situation. There are plenty of expensive hobbies out there that could be caught foul of the new rules!
As a hobby photographer, I use these platforms fairly frequently to offload old gear, but also just to see if I like something and if not I'll sell on, or for a short period of time to use more expensive kit as a much cheaper way to rent. So, sometimes I might hold on to stuff for a few years, few months or even few weeks. Although I might make a profit occasionally, with one exception this is small change. Most often some you win some you lose.
Then I got hit by a notification I should submit my tax ID for provision to the Finanzamt due to the new limits of 30 sales per year or €2000+ in sales before Meldepflicht. Sales, not profit - which of course Ebay could not possibly know.
And it's true, in 2024, while I have sold less than 10 things. Few small things of low value and some old headphones for a couple hundred. But due to selling a camera and a lens, I am over over the 2000EUR limit by a few hundred. The most expensive thing was sold a week after buying it as I wanted to split the kit, keep some things and sell off the rest.
Now I really do want to have a clean-out, I feel I am stuck on all selling platforms as it's not just Ebay that has to report. Even my wife selling on all sorts of kids clothes, bikes etc. as they get older might not be caught foul of the financial limits but the number of items limit, so I can't just do this in her name - the obvious solution.
So now I am wondering how best to proceed. Do I even need to declare this to the Finanzamt? And as what? It's not income of any kind. As far as I am concerned, I am not engaged in a profit making business, and if I were the €200 profit I was surprised to make after selling on that camera again minus the stuff I kept should be capable of being offset by the €50 loss on the lens and from anything else. That 15 year old snowboard I plan to sell, easily a loss of €300+ if the original purchase price is what counts.
I don't intend to declare in my tax declaration. Let the Finanzamt come knocking. It's my own private stuff I'm selling. But I know even if the Finanzamt don't come knocking in 2025 - they could easily send me a letter 5 years later enquiring about "Gewerbliche" activity from 2024 - like they did my wife's undeclared interest on a foreign bank account 10 years after the fact... a more clear cut case!
But for now, I'm holding on to the more pricey things I'd actually like to sell this year until 2025. Which is mighty annoying. I'd actually rather like to try out some expensive used gear that could end up costing close to the €2k limit should I not get on with it or sell it later. But now I don't feel I can.
Anyone got any experience of how the Finanzamt have responded or acted in this situation. There are plenty of expensive hobbies out there that could be caught foul of the new rules!