The legal aspect of selling on Allegro, i.e. when to pay tax

Selling on Allegro has many advantages for entrepreneurs. It allows you to gain new customers, promote your brand and, thanks to links on the auction website, redirect some of the traffic from your Allegro account to the company's website. Allegro is a phenomenon in the field of online commerce in Poland, but contrary to appearances, selling through this platform is not very different in the light of the law from selling goods through your own online store. In the article below, we present the legal aspect of selling on Allegro.

Sales on Allegro and e-shop

Online sales, and thus the legal aspect of selling on Allegro, are primarily regulated by the provisions of the Civil Code, the Act on consumer rights and the Act on competition and consumer protection, but also more detailed legal acts, such as the Act on the provision of electronic services or Personally Identifiable Information Protection Act.The obligations resulting from them apply to all entrepreneurs trading their products via the Internet, regardless of whether they sell the goods in their own e-shop or via Allegro. Those who use the auction site must also comply with the regulations. It plays an auxiliary role to the act, but it applies to users to the same extent, the more that some of its provisions specify legal provisions, for example in the matter of the protection of personal data of buyers.

People selling on Allegro are also required to pay fees for listing the item and a commission for each transaction. In the event that they run a business of selling goods through the portal, they must mark their profile as a Company account. Each seller also has the right to post their own sales rules on their website, provided, however, that they do not conflict with the Allegro regulations or the content of generally applicable legal acts. In addition, Allegro users should pay attention to the legal aspect of selling on Allegro in the area that is particularly important for online sales. This applies in particular to liability under the warranty and the return of goods without defects.

The legal aspect of selling on Allegro in the field of personal data protection

It should be equally important for the seller to pay attention to the legal aspect of selling on Allegro in the context of personal data protection. Pursuant to Allegro's privacy policy, the buyer should have access to their personal data, the right to correct and modify them, the right to control the processing of their personal data, and they should be able to complete all surveys and questionnaires voluntarily. Such provisions are fully in line with the Act on the Protection of Personal Data, so the protection of consumer rights is somewhat of a two-sided nature. The seller should also register a set of personal data. The collection should be reported to the Chief Personal Data Inspector if the personal data provided by consumers is used not only to record sales or issue invoices, but also to promote the company, for example by sending promotional materials to customers' e-mail boxes.

Sales on Allegro - tax approach

A particularly important legal aspect of selling on Allegro is the taxation of transactions made through the portal. In this matter, it is important whether the user did it as a private person or as part of a business. Persons running a registered business consisting in trading goods over the Internet are payers of income tax and VAT. Private individuals, in order to be able to sell items permitted by Allegro regulations without paying taxes, must meet several conditions:

• such sale should not be continuous and organized,

• items put up for auction should not be purchased for resale,

• the seller should have used items for a minimum of 6 months,

• the user's profits from the sale of items on Allegro did not exceed PLN 3091 during the year, i.e. the tax-free amount, if such activity is his only income.

It is important to be able to prove that the item is at least 6 months old - Art. 22j paragraph. 2 point 1 of the Personal Income Tax Act sets such a time limit. For this purpose, it will be most useful to keep receipts for items put up for auction. Also, proving that the user lists items on Allegro occasionally and does not make it a source of permanent earnings will avoid tax problems. The Tax Office carefully checks transactions made through such portals and, under the Act on the National Tax Administration, may request information about them from the portal administrator.