The voracity of the Tax Agency it does not have limits. Now, he has put in his sights the digital platforms for buying and selling second-hand itemssuch as Wallapop, Vinted or eBay. Apparently, more and more people are using them to buy and sell, which is why the tax authorities in Spain have decided to apply the European Directive DAC7 starting next year. Does that mean I have to declare Wallapop sales?
About six years ago, the Ministry of Finance already considered the possibility of this type of online commerce of used items being taxed through the Property Transfer Tax, but the idea remained only an attempt. Now, with the legal backing of the EU, it seems that regulation will be possible.
The fact is that, as of January 1, 2024, all these platforms will be required to collect economic data on all transactions and make them available to the Tax Agency through a complete declaration. The first declaration, referring to the 2023 fiscal year, must be submitted on January 31, 2024. Right now.
As expected, the news has caused quite a stir and filled with questions to those who use W00allapop and other similar applications to sell or buy products. Who is obliged to declare the transactions? What type of products and services fall within the new standard? Do I have to declare all my sales on Wallapop or just some? If you have to declare, how should you do it? And if we don't, what risks are we exposing ourselves to? We will try to shed a little light on this matter.
What the law says
The application of European Directive DAC7 (its official name is Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 of March 22, 2021) by the tax authorities in Spain implies that sellers will be obliged to provide their personal data if they are at least within one of the following assumptions:
- If they have completed 30 or more sales in a single year, regardless of their total amount.
- If through product sales they have generated more than 2.000 euros in a year, regardless of the number of transactions.
This means that a person who has sold more than 30 products through Wallapop (although they have only earned, for example, 200 euros in total), will be obliged to declare these profits. The same in the opposite case: a user who has made a single sale during the fiscal year, if the amount has been greater than 2.000 euros. These are quite narrow margins that precisely seek to ensure that few sellers can escape their networks.
Those who find themselves in one of the two aforementioned cases will be notified by the platform through a notification: an email in which your personal data will be requested to be later sent to the Tax Agency.
What data does the Tax Agency receive?
Forced by the new circumstances, online trading platforms such as Wallapop and others have already updated their terms and conditions in order to comply with the new tax requirements and not be penalized for not collaborating with the authority. The data of their users that they are obliged to provide are the following:
- Account or card number linked to the account, with the name of the owner.
- Total sales made in each quarter.
- Total money obtained through sales in each quarter.
- Any other fees, taxes or commissions withheld or collected.
Can we refuse to provide our personal data? If we do so, we risk Wallapop suspending our user account. Apart from this, the Treasury may consider that a certain volume of sales per year is a reflection of the development of an economic activity that must be regulated. In these cases, the seller will be obliged to register for the Economic Activities Tax (IAE) and comply with the corresponding tax payment.
The uncertain future of Wallapop and other platforms
While it is true that on platforms like Wallapop most users buy or sell sporadically, without any real commercial activity behind it, The news has not been received with much enthusiasm.
It is logical that it be so. The greater the fiscal control over these activities, the greater the distrust of users. Wallapop, Ebay and the rest of the platforms fear that there will be a "scare away" of users. It is already seen as an inevitable fact that accounts will be closed and that activity in general will suffer a significant drop. The economic consequences for Wallapop, to cite the clearest example, can be devastating.
The authorities maintain that these measures are implemented for a worthy cause. They say they intend to fight against tax evasion and, in the process, establish effective regulation of online commercial activities. However, it is not lost on anyone that all that lies behind this is the fundraising effort, without more.
For now, we will have to start getting used to the idea that no one is going to escape the obligation to declare Wallapop sales if we use the platform with some regularity.