The Treasury is keeping an eye on online sales: this is what you should know if you’re a Wallapop, Vinted, or Airbnb user

The use of platforms like Wallapop, Vinted, and Airbnb is becoming increasingly common, and now the Treasury will be able to monitor the profits obtained from them. If you exceed certain sales or rental limits, you may have to declare it. The information will be shared with other countries to prevent fraud. However, small sellers and some platforms are exempt.

In this article, you’ll be able to clear up any doubts and find out when you should declare your tax return so you don’t get caught out. 

Last February, new regulations were published with changes that affect, from a tax perspective, users of 
Wallapop, Vinted, Airbnb, and eBay, among other digital platforms. Order HAC/72/2024, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on February 5, approves a new information declaration template for platform operators to communicate information. “It refers to the obligation of digital platform operators to provide the tax authorities with information about the activities carried out by their users,” explains Benja Anglès, associate professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

With the profits obtained through sales or rentals carried out on these platforms, tax authorities will have the necessary information to verify the corresponding taxes, if they deem it necessary.

“In addition to verifying compliance with tax obligations, tax authorities can exchange this information with other EU member states, and even other states within the OECD,” Anglès explains. To simplify and reduce costs, platforms must report user income in a single country, including property rentals, personal services, product sales, and vehicle leasing. However, limits can be set on this obligation to reduce unnecessary costs.

In this regard, a registry of digital platform operators will be created, including operators with tax domicile in Spain and those who, although not resident in Spain, operate within its territory.

However, in this new scenario, a number of platforms and users are legally excluded, primarily if they are public entities or because they do not carry out the activities subject to the tax. A limitation is also established for occasional users or sellers, provided they carry out fewer than thirty sales of goods annually, with a value not exceeding 2,000 euros.

DATA THAT DIGITAL PLATFORMS MUST COLLECT 

If the user is a natural person:

•     Name and surname.
•     Main address.
•     Tax identification number.
•     Identification number for the purposes of value added tax or similar tax.
•     Date and place of birth.
•     Current account used in the activity.
•     The amounts paid and the number of activities carried out.
•     Taxes or withholdings already paid into the account.

If the user is an entity:

•     Company name.
•     Main address.
•     Tax identification number or equivalent.
•     Identification number for the purposes of value added tax or similar tax.
•     Company registration number, if applicable.
•     Identification of the permanent establishments from which the activities are carried out in the European Union, indicating the Member State in which these permanent establishments are located.
•     Current account that has been used in the activity.
•     The amounts paid and the number of activities carried out.
•     Taxes or withholdings already paid into the account.

When it is an activity in which the user leases or temporarily transfers the use of real estate:

•     The address of each property marketed.
•     The property’s cadastral reference number or its equivalent.
•     The number of days that the marketed property has been rented or leased.
•     Information, documents, or data proving that the marketed property belongs to the same owner, when the platform operator required to communicate information has facilitated more than 2,000 activities through the leasing or temporary transfer of use of a marketed property to the same user who is an entity.

WHEN SHOULD IT BE DECLARATED?

The information must be submitted in January following the year in which the user or seller was identified as the subject of the disclosure. However, for 2023, the deadline for filing the declaration is April 6, 2024, two months after the aforementioned order came into effect, on February 6, 2024. “To comply with this obligation, the respective digital platform operators must collect this information and verify it before communicating it to the Spanish Tax Agency, which is why they must require affected users to complete the legal details of their profiles,” explains Benja Anglès. If users refuse to do so, the operators will block their accounts and prevent them from continuing to use their services.

“It should be noted that the tax obligations of users or sellers on digital platforms have not changed; what has changed is that from now on, the platforms themselves are required to report their activities so that the tax authorities can verify compliance with these obligations and take action when they consider that they have not been fulfilled or have not been done correctly. This is one more step toward making the saying ‘ we are all the Treasury ‘ a reality,” Anglès concludes.