I’m pretty sick living Paycheck-to-Paycheck in a big German city, and have since started a small side hustle on [eBay.de](https://eBay.de) (as a **private seller**). This side hustle makes me around 30€ to 50€ a month. I hope to scale this in the future, but that’s a long shot and a conversation for another day.

Side hustle idea is simple:
I buy things from one place (or website) and sell/resell them on [eBay.de](https://eBay.de) for a small profit. The buyer pays via protection from eBay, so they don’t get scammed. As an example, I buy an item for 500€ on XYZ website, then resell it on eBay for 504€, making a 4€ profit per item. Of course, the prices of the items on XYZ website vary, but let’s assume the average price per item is 500€.

Depending on how many eBay users buy the items, I sell items multiple times, and this would bring my profits to around 40€ for a month (give or take). On eBay however, the sales overview shows that I’ve actually made a business of around 5040€ (i.e., 504€ x 10) for the month.

Due to eBay’s rules I had to provide them my TAX-ID, which I’m fine with because I assume that I’m not breaking the law – and since the buying and selling are all online, there are bank transfer records and all receipts from my side. But now I’m concerned about potential tax complications from the Finanzamt. So my questions are:

1. Do I need to worry about tax complications due to the business costs shown on eBay?
2. Would I be required to pay taxes on the entire business costs? (i.e., taxes on 5040€)
3. Or will I be required to pay taxes only on the profits? (I know 40€ isn’t much of a profit, but still)

Could you guys please provide your insights and feedback? Especially those who are also doing such online businesses?
I really hope to scale this side hustle in the future, and wishing that it becomes a success.
Thank you!

by MoonlanderUltra

2 comments

  1. Private sellers don’t pay taxes on sales. Though depending on factors like frequency and what is sold it can be deemed a (small) business. You only pay taxes on profits though 40€ are obviously too low to reach the threshold where income or sales tax come into play. Even if the tax authorities decide you have to declare taxes you wouldn’t pay anything on those profits though you’d then have to declare your taxes yearly.

  2. If you sell items for 5k per months continuesly you will be considered a business, you have to register it with your municipality and the tax administration. Also you have to give full customers right like refunds on return and warrantees. That said less than 1% of margin seems to be unreasonably low.

    There has been a recent change in the law that mandates eBay to report accounts with business like behavior.

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