Income, expenses, margin and the metrics that show whether your reselling really makes money.
Without clean numbers you don't know whether you're making a profit, and the tax office sees your platform revenue via DAC7 anyway. Record purchases, sales, fees and shipping — that's the basis for the tax return and good business decisions.
Typical: goods purchase, platform fees, shipping and packaging, travel costs for buying, pro-rated work equipment (phone, printer), tool subscriptions and possibly a home-office share. Keep receipts. What exactly applies depends on the individual case — tax advice provides certainty.
Revenue is everything coming in; profit is what's left after deducting all costs. Profit is taxed. Many beginners celebrate high revenue and overlook that purchase, fees and shipping eat up the margin.
Return on Investment = profit relative to the purchase capital deployed. Example: €10 purchase, €30 sale, ~€15 profit after costs = 150% ROI. ROI helps decide which sourcing channels are really worth it.
The share of stock that sells per period. Rough guide: 20–30% per month is considered healthy. Low values tie up capital in slow movers; very high values can mean you're selling too cheaply.
Either a clean spreadsheet (date, item, purchase, sale, fee, shipping, profit) or a tool that records sales automatically and offers a tax export. Automation saves time and prevents gaps at year-end.
The point at which sales have covered the cost of the entire lot — everything after is profit. So with a €100 bundle of 25 items you first have to bring in ~€100 (plus incidentals). After that every sale counts positively.
Monthly profit divided by the hours actually invested (buying, photos, listing, shipping, communication). This number is often sobering and shows where automation (listing, bookkeeping) has the biggest leverage.
Yes, a separate account for reselling payments makes bookkeeping and tax returns much easier and looks clean if the tax office has questions. From regular revenue at the latest it's a must.
Keep purchase receipts, sales summaries and fees together all year rather than reconstructing three spreadsheets at year-end. A DAC7-ready export of your platform revenue plus a cost breakdown is the basis for the tax return or your tax advisor.
Receipts, invoices or at least a self-receipt with date, source, item and price. Without proof you can't offset the purchase and may end up taxing the full proceeds.
Note date, place/seller, item and amount yourself promptly. A clean self-receipt is accepted for undocumentable cash purchases if it's plausible and gapless.
As a business expense. The Vinted buyer protection is paid by the buyer, but eBay commissions, shop fees and paid boosts are deductible. Record them per sale so your margin is correct.
Goods purchase, fees, shipping/packaging, travel costs, pro-rated work equipment (phone, printer, lighting), tool subscriptions, possibly a home-office share. What exactly applies depends on the individual case.
Best on an ongoing or weekly basis — not only at year-end. Regular recording prevents gaps, saves stress and makes the cash-basis statement a formality at year-end.
Columns for date, item/SKU, purchase price, sale price, fees, shipping, platform and calculated margin. That way you see profit per item at a glance and can analyze by source/brand.
Sale price minus purchase, fees, shipping share and packaging. Only then do you know the true contribution margin — the plain sale price is misleading about profit.
Assign each sale to the sourcing source and sum profit and ROI per source. After a few weeks you'll see which sourcing channel is worth it and which is just work.
Cash flow is the movement of money (including capital tied up in stock), profit is the surplus after all costs. You can make a profit and still be short on cash if a lot of capital sits in goods.
As a reduction of income or a reversed sale. Document refunds so your taxed profit isn't overstated.
Not mandatory, but strongly recommended: it separates personal from business, eases bookkeeping and looks clean to the tax office. Sensible from regular revenue at the latest.
Keep income, expenses and receipts together all year and create a platform export (DAC7-ready). That becomes the cash-basis statement — with clean data in minutes instead of days.
Principles for the proper, unalterable retention of digital receipts. As a trader you should archive receipts in an audit-proof (not subsequently changeable) way.
Sum of the purchase prices of your unsold stock = tied-up capital. Keep an eye on it so you don't buy more than sells — otherwise the stock pile grows.
As soon as manual recording gets too error-prone or time-consuming or you run several platforms. A tool that records and exports sales automatically saves time and closes gaps.
Practical knowledge from the reseller community and experienced full-time sellers, summarized generally. Legal & tax matters follow official sources (incl. the German Federal Central Tax Office on the Platform Tax Transparency Act/DAC7) and do not replace tax or legal advice. As of 2026.
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