How To Handle Taxes as a Vinted Seller

Founded in Lithuania in 2008, Vinted has become a go-to secondhand marketplace for European buyers and sellers. But Americans are getting on board and scoring unique items too.

The app is a seller-friendly platform that won’t charge you fees as a seller. Instead, buyers pay a fixed fee per transaction, meaning you’ll get to keep more of your profit.

Do you have to pay taxes on your Vinted sales?

It depends on what you sold and why.

If you sell your own used skirt for less than you paid, there is generally no taxable gain.

If you sell a personal item for more than you paid, the gain is taxable, even if it is just $50. You'll report it as a capital gain on Form 8949 and Schedule D, and you won't owe self-employment tax on it. One catch: losses on other personal items can't be used to offset that gain.

If you run a resale business, you generally report its income and expenses on Schedule C. Business profit is taxable from the first dollar, and once your net self-employment earnings hit $400 or more, you'll also owe self-employment tax. The $400 rule applies to net earnings, not your total Vinted sales.

Whether you sold a personal item, earned hobby income, or operated a resale business affects what you report and which taxes may apply. The IRS explains the difference for personal-item sales.

Not sure which one you are? The IRS cares about intent. If you're sourcing inventory and trying to make money, you're a business, even if it's only part-time.

Hobby income vs. business income

Whether you consider your Vinted sales a fun hobby or a serious business doesn’t always matter when it comes to taxes. The IRS has specific rules about what makes something a hobby or a business. (TL;DR: If you are trying to generate a profit, it’s usually a business, even if you only do it part-time.) Either way, though, you have to pay taxes on your earnings.

But there are 2 significant tax differences between a hobby and a business. As a hobbyist:

1. You can’t claim tax deductions

2. Hobby income generally isn't subject to self-employment tax, which is an extra 15.3%

What if selling on Vinted isn’t a business or a hobby?

A third category of Vinted seller is the garage sale host. If you’re selling items through a one-time “virtual garage sale” to get rid of a few things, you probably don’t need to report your earnings for tax purposes.

Let’s imagine that you’re embarking on a big cross-country move. Before you start packing, you decide to declutter your closet and get rid of unwanted items. You find a pile of clothes you no longer wear and post them as a bundle on Vinted. You make a few sales and treat your friends to a goodbye dinner with your earnings.

After accounting for how much you spent on the clothes when you first bought them, you probably didn’t make a profit, per se. But it’s still a win-win for your closet and bank account - and since you sold at a loss, you won't owe taxes.

Do Vinted sellers have to pay sales tax?

Vinted handles sales tax on behalf of sellers, and you don’t have to pay a cent. One less thing to worry about!

The sales tax requirements do vary by state. Luckily, Vinted has a handy list of the states in which it collects sales tax.

Long story short: as a Vinted seller, you don’t need to worry about sales tax and how it works in each state. Vinted has got it covered and handles all of it on your behalf.

What taxes do you have to pay on your Vinted sales?

Remember the hobbyist vs. business owner distinction? Here’s where it comes into play.

You must pay income tax and self-employment tax if you’re a business owner running your Vinted store for a profit.

But if you sell on Vinted as a hobby, you’re only on the hook for income tax. Here’s a rundown of each.

Income tax

If you sell a personal item at a gain, that gain may be taxable. If you sell as a business, you generally report your business income even when no tax form arrives. Hobby income may be taxable as well.

What you ultimately owe depends on the rest of your return, including other income, deductions, credits, and withholding.

As H. Nicole Rosen, EA at Boundless Advisors, explained, “You need to understand that the IRS is constantly changing tax rules, and they are trying to close the tax gap…the tax gap is the difference between the taxes the IRS actually collects and the taxes the IRS believes they should collect.”

Figuring out how much you owe can feel like a mystery, but Keeper’s free income tax calculator can help you estimate your Vinted taxes.

Self-employment tax

If you're running a resale business on Vinted, the IRS considers you self-employed. Working for yourself comes with plenty of perks. But it also comes with some significant responsibilities, like paying self-employment tax.

The name of the tax is misleading, though, since it’s actually the FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare. All workers pay it, including W-2 employees. But W-2 employees split the 15.3% tax rate with their employer — the employer pays 7.65%, and the employee pays 7.65%. It’s a sweet deal if you can get it.

But as a Vinted seller who runs a business, you’re responsible for paying the entire rate. (You might pay less thanks to write-offs, though — more on that in a second!)

There’s one exception, though — if you’re a hobbyist, you don’t have to pay the FICA tax. It’s a nice perk for sellers who only occasionally use the app and classify themselves as “hobbyists” per the IRS guidelines.

How to lower your Vinted taxes with write-offs

You’ve probably heard of write-offs, but you might not know what they actually are. Basically, you can subtract the cost of doing business (e.g. supplies, shipping, transportation) from your total profit. The resulting, lower number is what you’re actually taxed on.

Let’s say you earned $10,000 from Vinted this year. However, you also spent nearly $5,000 sourcing clothes, paying for professional photography, and purchasing fancy shipping labels.

After writing off your qualified business expenses, your profit for the year is actually $5,000, not $10,000 - you didn’t get to enjoy the whole $10,000! Thus, when it’s time to calculate your taxes, you’ll base the calculations on $5,000.

As a small business owner, write-offs can have a big impact on how much you owe. And as a Vinted seller, you can utilize tons of potential write-offs for your business, so tracking how much you spend throughout the year is essential. Here are some you should consider:

• 👕 Inventory: You know that cool vintage dress you sourced from across the country? The cost of buying, cleaning, and repairing it is tax-deductible. The same is true for every other item of inventory, too

• 📱Phone bill: Since Vinted is an app, you probably use your phone to run your business — posting items, messaging buyers and updating listings. Because of that, you can write off the business-use portion of your cell phone bill. Here’s what you need to know about deducting your cell phone bill

• 📦 Shipping costs: If you pay for shipping labels, packaging and other expenses associated with shipping, then you can count them as write-offs. Yep, it’s true — the neon green mailers you picked are tax-deductible

• 🚗 Transportation costs: Whether you drive to local thrift stores to find treasures to sell on Vinted or make weekly trips to the post office to mail your sales, you can write off your transportation expenses. You’ll just need to calculate the business-use percentage

• 🏢 Office space: Whether you use a home office or a professional coworking space, you can write off the expense of a dedicated workspace — where you store inventory counts too

• 📸 Photography expenses: If you buy equipment, props, or editing apps to create high-quality photographs for your listing, you can write off the costs. Or maybe you work with a professional photographer to really stand out. That’s also a write-off

Even if Vinted is a side hustle, costs like these add up. It makes sense to track them to save on your taxes. But it’s boring and time-consuming to keep updating spreadsheets and organizing receipts.

Keeper can take this hassle off your hands. This smart app is an easy way track your business expenses and file taxes to claim your savings. Keeper links to your accounts, so you can see transactions as they come in and quickly mark them as write-offs. As you use it, the app will learn your buying habits and automatically write off what you spend on your Vinted shop.

How to file taxes as a Vinted seller

As a Vinted seller, you may receive a 1099-K form from the company. Once you receive the form, you can file your taxes using Form Schedule C. But let’s take it one step at a time.

How to read your 1099 form

Your 1099-K form is an official tax document that details how much you earned from a particular company during a tax year. The 1099-K form from Vinted will report how much you earned on that platform in box 1a.

Who gets a 1099-K from Vinted?

If you earned over $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions on Vinted over one year, the company must issue you a tax form. (But don’t panic if you don’t receive it immediately. It can take a few weeks to arrive.)

And heads up: some states set a lower bar. If you live in Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, Montana, or DC, you can get a 1099-K at just $600 in sales. New Jersey uses $1,000, Illinois uses $1,000 plus at least four transactions, and Arkansas uses $2,500. So don't be surprised if a form shows up even though you're well under the federal threshold.

Can you owe taxes if you don’t get a 1099-K?

Yes. The 1099-K reporting threshold does not determine whether you owe tax. A personal item sold at a gain, taxable hobby income, or resale business profit may need to be reported even without a form.

Remember, self-employment tax kicks in at $400 in net earnings, far below the 1099-K threshold, so you can owe it without ever seeing a form.

But even if the form gets lost in the mail or sent to the wrong address, you still owe taxes, and you can probably calculate your earnings through your sales transaction history on the app.

“If you’re in the business of [selling items online], you should be claiming the income whether or not you get a tax document,” said Rosen. “The number one thing [sellers] need to consider about their taxes is records…You need to think about how you are going to track [your] costs.”

Keeper can help you track your expenses right on your phone. Then, when you’re ready to file, you can do so right on the app. Plus, Keeper’s team of tax assistants will be standing by to answer any questions that might come up.

How to fill out Schedule C

Once you’re ready to file your taxes, you’ll use Form Schedule C, which is the form used to report self-employment income on a personal return.

• Part I asks for your "gross sales," which is how much you earned in online sales before deductions.

• Part II is where you record most of your deductions.

• Part III is where resellers report cost of goods sold, the amount you paid for the items you actually sold during the year. (Items still sitting in your inventory at year-end aren't deductible until they sell.)

The first part of Schedule C asks for your “gross sales,” which is how much you earned in online sales before deductions. Part II is all about deductions, so you’ll record those there.

How many Schedule Cs do you need?

You'll fill out one Schedule C for each self-employed job you do. "Online seller" is a single job. So if you sold through other online platforms in addition to Vinted - like TikTok Shop, eBay or Facebook Marketplace - you'll report your income and deductions from all those platforms on a single form.

However, if you do any other freelance work in addition to selling online, you'll need a separate Schedule C for each type of work. For example, pretend you:

• Sell clothes on Vinted

• Do graphic design through Upwork

• Play in a wedding band

You'll need to fill out three Schedule Cs.

Need help with the form? Keeper has a handy guide for all things Schedule C.

Do Vinted sellers have to pay quarterly taxes?

As an online seller, you should pay quarterly taxes if you expect to $1,000 or more for the year. Quarterly taxes are estimated tax payments that you make every three months.

If you want to avoid paying penalties (which you definitely do!), then make sure to pay your taxes by the following deadlines each year. If the 15th lands on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.

• April 15

• June 15

• September 15

• January 15

It might sound confusing, but you’ll get the hang of it. Plus, you’ll always know where you stand with the IRS - and you won’t have a big bill at the end of the year.

Want to get an idea of how much you’ll owe? Check out Keeper’s estimated quarterly tax calculator.

TLDR: here's what you need to know at the end of the day:

• Keep records of what you paid for each item, what you received when it sold, and any business costs.

• Use an app like Keeper to keep track of your business expenses and file your taxes.

• Selling your own clothes at a loss generally creates no taxable gain. Personal-item gains and taxable hobby income may still need to be reported.

• If you run a resale business, report its income and eligible costs even if you never receive a 1099-K.