The popularization of online buying and selling met its biggest driver with the emergence of the pandemic that ravaged the world at the end of 2019. Most people have already done some kind of business on platforms such as: “OLX”, “Vinted” and “Amazon”. It now remains to be seen what the law says about the mandatory payment of taxes on the sale of these products.
The Tax Authorities only started to control these sales from this year on, so before it was not mandatory to pay taxes. Portugal is about to transpose into national legislation the new European rules that extend the exchange of information between European Union (EU) tax authorities to data on sales of products and services on digital platforms”.
This means that the companies that own the sites, mentioned above and others, will now collect and hand over to the tax authority (AT) all the information about the users and the value of the operations carried out.
The measure will apply to both individuals and businesses. Digital platforms will have until January 31 of each year to report to the tax authorities. Then, the following month, the tax authorities in each country will cross-check the information.
The goal is to control and monitor sales that result in earnings of more than 2,000 euros, or if not, you only need to have made 30 sales in a year for your data to be considered by the AT.
The fines, if the companies do not collect the information, or if the sellers themselves omit it, range from 250€ to 11250€.
The European Union member states have until December 31st of this year to adapt this criterion to their legislation. In Portugal, the process is already underway: on the proposed law transposing the directive, only the PS and Livre voted in favor. PSD, Iniciativa Liberal, BE, PAN and Chega abstained and PCP voted against.
The Government writes in the explanatory memorandum of the draft law that “the objective of preventing fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance is ensured by requiring platform operators to report income obtained through digital platforms at an early stage, before the tax authorities make the annual tax assessment. This legal obligation is therefore aimed at achieving greater transparency, as well as encouraging platform operators not to adopt certain practices that may favour tax evasion.”
