Do you sell used clothes and objects on Vinted, E-bay, Wallapop? Very good, but be careful: from occasional seller to tax evader it’s a short step. There are precise tax rules to respect, otherwise the sanctions of the Revenue Agency are triggered. And if the turnover is significant, a VAT number is also necessary.
Starting this year, marketplaces are required to communicate to the tax authorities the data of online sales completed by users. This is established by the European directive Dac7, implemented at the end of 2023 also in Italy. Above a certain sales and earnings limit, the platform must have the seller fill out a form with their data (personal and fiscal) which is then transmitted to the Revenue Agency. At the moment, sellers are considered “non-occasional” and therefore subject to checks or fines if they exceed 30 annual sales or 2 thousand euros in earnings. Above these thresholds, users/sellers are “reported” and can be checked. In Italy, if you earn more than 5 thousand euros a year, you are required to open a VAT number, therefore to pay contributions and taxes on the earnings. All platforms that allow sales by users/customers are involved: Vinted, Wallapop, Amazon, Etsy, Vestiaire Collective, eBay. Just like Airbnb.
Rules and regulations with one goal: to reduce the risk of tax evasion on the platforms that are booming. The very famous Vinted, the Lithuanian startup that has become the queen of second-hand clothes (and not only), saw its turnover explode by +61% in 2023, reaching 596.3 million euros. There are over 65 million users. Wallapop, founded in Spain in 2013, closed 2023 with a turnover of around 91 million euros, marking a +26% compared to the previous year. The recycling and sale of clothing items is currently worth between 100 and 120 billion dollars (according to estimates by the Boston Consulting Group) and in three years an annual increase of 20% is expected. This means more than doubling between now and 2027.
In Italy, the second-hand market, especially for clothing and accessories, is growing. It went from 19 million Italians who use the “second hand” market to 26 million in 2023. The frequency (76% of buyers and 71% of sellers use this market twice a year) and the number of objects purchased or sold (in 8 cases out of 10 it is greater than the previous year) have also increased. The overall turnover has reached 26 billion euros, 1.3% of the Italian GDP.
