When does selling become commercial on eBay & co.? The limits in 2026 – and what to do

"Am I actually already selling too much?" Many people whose online sales are slowly growing ask themselves this. The worry behind it: a warning letter, a forgotten business registration, in the worst case a back-tax bill. The reassuring news up front: the line is not a number you cross by accident – it emerges from the overall picture. This article explains what the tax office and courts use to determine commercial activity, which myth stubbornly persists, and how the path to doing things properly can be stress-free.

Note: This article provides a general overview and does not replace legal or tax advice.

There is no fixed limit – and that matters

Contrary to what many assume, nowhere does it say "from your 31st sale you are commercial." Germany's Federal Court of Justice describes a commercial activity as any self-employed, sustained activity carried out with the intention of making a profit, going beyond the purely private sphere. Whether that applies is decided case by case, based on several indicators – not on a single number.

The criteria that count

Four questions set the direction:

• Self-employed: Are you acting on your own account and at your own risk?
• Sustained: Do you sell repeatedly and systematically – or was it a one-off?
• Intention to profit: Do you want to generate surpluses over the long term?
• Not merely private: Does it go beyond dissolving your own holdings?

In practice, authorities and courts weigh additional indicators: many similar or as-new items, regularly high sales figures, buying goods specifically for resale, a professional presence with a shop and logo. As a rough pointer, around 15 to 25 similar sales per month is considered critical – but always only in the overall picture, never as a rigid rule.

Three examples: from clearly private to clearly commercial

Dennis is moving house. During the move, Dennis parts with around 40 pieces of furniture, kitchen appliances and boxes of odds and ends over a single weekend. Commercial? No. Sustained activity is missing – a one-off clear-out is not planned trading, even with many items.

Elif sells her hand-sewn baby clothes. What began as a hobby has been running for months now: Elif sews regularly, offers under her own shop name and earns small but steady surpluses. Commercial? Yes – even if it runs on the side and on a small scale. What counts is repetition and the intention to profit, not the size of the earnings. "Just a hobby" offers no protection here.

Carla trades in sneakers. She deliberately buys stock, resells it at a markup and appears with a logo and fixed shipping terms – 130 sales a year. Commercial? Unmistakably. Buying for resale plus a professional presence leave no doubt; there is no way around registering here. (You may already know Carla from our article on the DAC7 report to the tax office.)

The difference rarely lies in a single number, but in the pattern: whoever plans, repeats and aims for profit slides from "private" to "commercial" – gradually, but unmistakably.

The most common myth: "30 sales = commercial"

This mix-up persists stubbornly. The limit of 30 sales or 2,000 euros comes from the DAC7 reporting obligation, which we explain in a separate article. It only governs when the platform reports your data to the tax office – it says nothing about whether you are commercial. These are two entirely different things: you can be reported and still sell purely privately. And you can act commercially without ever reaching the DAC7 threshold.

What can happen if you wait too long

Anyone who is in fact acting commercially but has not registered a business risks above all three things:

• a warning letter from competitors, because obligations such as an imprint and a right-of-withdrawal notice are missing,
• back-claims for VAT and income tax for past years,
• a fine for late business registration.

That sounds threatening, but it is easy to avoid – by actively tackling the transition as soon as it becomes clear that selling is turning into a business.

The path in four steps

1. Register a business with the trade office – in many places this can be done online for a small fee.
2. Fill in the tax registration questionnaire at the tax office. This is also where it is decided whether you use the small-business scheme.
3. Check the small-business scheme: anyone who stays below the relevant turnover limits does not charge VAT – which noticeably simplifies the start.
4. Keep invoices and receipts properly: from now on, every sale needs proper documentation – our guide on writing an invoice shows how.

For these steps you will find detailed articles in our guide – such as small-business scheme – yes or no? and, as soon as invoices are requested electronically, e-invoicing obligation for small businesses.

When selling turns into a business

The most demanding part in everyday life is rarely the registration, but the ongoing work: recording every order, writing invoices, keeping the overview. office1.cloud takes care of exactly that – orders from eBay and other marketplaces (such as Etsy) are imported automatically, and from them invoices are created with all the required mandatory details, on request including the small-business note. That supports you in meeting the formal requirements without typing every invoice by hand.

Try it free for 10 days – and see whether the automatic marketplace import suits your selling.