DAC7 directive will be implemented in Poland from July 1, 2024. According to its provisions, operators of shopping platforms such as Allegro, Vinted or OLX will have to send user reports to the tax office. This information will then be verified by the tax office, which will be able to ask sellers to prove the nature of their business and whether they have paid tax on the items sold.
The information that will be sent to the tax office will only apply to online sellers who:
- make 30 or more transactions per year
or
- will make transactions worth over EUR 2,000 in a year.
What will happen to sales data in 2023?
Even though the new regulations will come into force in Poland only from mid-2024, our country was obliged to implement EU regulations from the beginning of 2023. Therefore, many sellers wonder whether the reports sent to the tax office will also cover sales made in 2023. There is even information in the media that the Polish tax office has already received data about sellers on the Vinted platform and has summoned some of them for explanations. In this case, it was exceptional because Vinted is registered in Lithuania, and the provisions of the directive are already in force there.
As Piotr Juszczyk, Chief Tax Advisor of InFakt, explains, we never remain anonymous online and the transfer of data about users will be mainly based on the information that the platforms obtained about such people when registering an account. Therefore, there will likely be no problem with the tax office obtaining information about transactions made by us also in 2023. – However, if there were difficulties with this, it is possible that the platform will ask us directly for such data and invoke the provisions of the directive – the expert considers.
The tax office will examine the sellers
We also asked the interviewee who the tax authorities can mainly focus ona, after the tax authority receives information about the sellers. – First, the tax office can analyze what things a person sells online. If, for example, there is one size of clothes, the approach will be different than if someone offered full sizes. Then you can see that the sales are typically profitable and on a larger scale. Therefore, the tax office can check whether such a person pays tax on his or her activities correctly, he says.
– In my opinion, the office should first ask the platform's administrators, not the users, about the things sold on it, and not disturb the users, especially those who sell unnecessary used items from their homes in small quantities and get relatively little from it. profit – adds Piotr Juszczyk.
When do we have to pay online sales tax?
The tax advisor also explains that they currently exist in Polish law three forms of taxation of online sales. The first is the so-called occasional sales, on which we do not have to pay any tax if we sell items that we own and purchased over half a year ago. If we sell our own things less than half a year after purchasing them, we pay tax only if we sold them for a higher price than we bought them. – Otherwise, the costs exceed the income and no tax liability arises. Then we do not have to report such sales in our tax return, explains Piotr Juszczyk.
The second form is leading unregistered activity. This option can be used if our income is up to 75%. the current amount of the minimum wage. Therefore, from January to June 2024, it amounted to less than PLN 3,181.50 per month, and from July 2024 – to PLN 3,225. This is a gainful activity in which there is no obligation to set up a business or carry out other formalities related to it, e.g. paying social security or health insurance fees. If we run such a business, we must pay tax on items sold online. This is done using the PIT-36 form in the annual return, where we document revenues and costs and pay tax on the difference.
The third form of settlement is: standard business activities.
Consequences for sellers
So what might be the impact of the provisions of the EU DAC7 directive being introduced in Poland? Which sellers might be concerned? – In my opinion, online sales are simply a sign of the times. Business from “marketplaces” naturally moved to the Internet. But you must remember that not only those who want to, for example, air out their wardrobes, sell there, but also people for whom it is a form of earning money and do not pay taxes on this activity. The introduction of the provisions of the directive will put an end to this type of practice.
To avoid problems during a possible tax audit, Piotr Juszczyk from InFakt recommends reviewing the things we sold on portals in 2023 and 2024. If, for example, in 2023 we exceeded one of the thresholds indicated above (30 items sold or a total profit of EUR 8,000) and these were items that we had for less than half a year and we sold them above their purchase price, then by April 30 there is still time to pay tax on such sales by reporting the income and expenses in the PIT-36 form.
– There may also be a situation where our sales are business-like, e.g. continuous and organized, and this may be classified as unregistered activity. Let us remember, however, that in 2023, due to the lower minimum wage, there were different thresholds for conducting unregistered activities. Until the end of June 2023, it was still 50% monthly. minimum wage (as stipulated in the old regulations), i.e. PLN 1,745. In turn, from July 2023, it is the equivalent of 75%. minimum wage, i.e. at that time, PLN 2,700 of income per month was counted as unregistered activity – calculates the tax advisor.
