You sold children's clothes your daughter outgrew on Vinted, an old laptop on Marketplace, and a few handmade jewelry pieces through Instagram. Small stuff, right? Now imagine a letter from Finančná správa (the Slovak tax office) asking you to explain where these earnings came from and why they are not in your tax return. For some sellers in Slovakia, this is no longer a fantasy, but a reality.
The reason is simple: the state no longer relies on your honesty. It receives data about your earnings directly from platforms, automatically and every year.
How the Tax Office Finds Out About Your Sales
Since January 1, 2023, a law has been in effect in Slovakia implementing the European DAC7 directive. According to this law, digital platforms (Vinted, Airbnb, Booking, Bolt, Uber, and others) must automatically report the income of their users to Finančná správa. The first reporting period is already over: platforms submitted data for 2023 by January 31, 2024, and reporting has been operating regularly since then.
What is important to understand about the thresholds:
- Selling goods (Vinted, Marketplace, Instagram shops): The platform reports on you if you made 30 or more sales in a year or if your total revenue exceeded €2,000.
- Services (renting out accommodation via Airbnb or Booking, transportation via Bolt/Uber, food delivery, car rental): Reporting is mandatory regardless of the amount. This means even renting out an apartment for a weekend is included in the report.
And no, transferring money to Revolut does not help: platforms provide the tax office with the account details to which you were paid, so tracking income is not difficult. Refresher also writes about this, having examined this topic in detail.
Where is the Line Between "Cleaning Out Your Closet" and Business
This is where it gets interesting. If you sold your own items once for less than you bought them for, it's not entrepreneurship, and such income is usually not taxed in Slovakia. You are simply getting back some of the money you spent.
However, the tax office looks at the nature of the activity, not your feelings. Signs that you are already "in business" include: you regularly buy goods to resell them at a higher price; you sew or produce items specifically for sale; sales are systematic, volumes are growing, and this is essentially your additional income. In such cases, you are formally obliged to register a živnosť (business activity, similar to a sole proprietorship) and declare the profit.
Renting out property is a separate issue. If you rent out a room or an apartment (whether through Airbnb or directly), Slovak law requires registration with the tax office, and here DAC7 data makes hiding it almost pointless.
What are the Penalties for Hiding Income
The numbers are unpleasant, so it's better to know them in advance:
- Failure to file a tax return, even after being summoned by the tax office: a fine from €30 to €16,000.
- Failure to register for tax payment (e.g., when renting property): from €60 to €20,000.
And this is without the undeclared tax itself and late payment penalties. Finančná správa is already actively using DAC7 data for checks and is sending sellers requests to confirm declared income with documents. As tax consultants note, platforms have come under close scrutiny, and so have their users.
By the way, the directive also provides for joint cross-border checks: if you live in Slovakia and rent out property in Austria or the Czech Republic, the tax offices of both countries can check you together.
What to Do If You Sell Regularly
If your sales already look like a systematic activity, do it calmly and in order:
- Calculate honestly: how many sales and what revenue per year. If you exceed 30 sales or €2,000, the platform is already reporting on you.
- Assess the nature: if you sell your own used items for less than the purchase price, everything is likely fine. If you buy for resale or produce items, it's time to register a živnosť.
- File a tax return for previous periods if you had income and did not declare it. Voluntary settlement is much cheaper than a fine after an inspection.
- If you rent out property, check if you are registered with the tax office as a landlord.
Slovakia is not an exception here: DAC7 operates throughout the EU, so "invisible" online earnings are over. It's better to spend an evening on paperwork than to explain every transfer to Revolut to the tax office later.
