DAC7 is an EU directive that obliges platforms to report to the tax administration. Marketplaces, letting portals and freelance platforms submit once a year which earnings have run through them. Providers who sell, let or take jobs there receive a request for their tax identification number in that context, plus an annual statement in January.
Worth knowing up front: DAC7 does not introduce a new tax. The directive obliges platforms to report their providers earnings to the tax authorities. What is ultimately payable is still decided by ordinary tax law. This article settles who reports, from which threshold, which data is sent and what follows from it for sellers, landlords and self-employed people.
The key facts:
- DAC7 is an EU directive. In Germany it applies through the Plattformen-Steuertransparenzgesetz (PStTG, the Platform Tax Transparency Act) and has been in force since 1 January 2023.
- The reporting is not done by the provider. The platform operator sends the data to the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (BZSt, the Federal Central Tax Office), by 31 January for the previous year.
- For the sale of goods providers stay exempt as long as they stay below 30 sales and below 2.000 € in remuneration within a calendar year. Both limits apply together.
- What gets reported: name, address, date of birth, tax identification number, the financial account identifier and the remuneration per quarter.
- For letting and for services there is no such exemption. There, reporting starts with the first euro.
- A report does not produce a tax assessment. Whether tax arises follows income tax and VAT law.
What DAC7 is and why the EU introduced it
Until 2022 the tax administration knew platform earnings only from what was entered in a tax return. With the directive those figures also come from the platform, which sees every transaction anyway. The effort moves from the individual person to the portal, and the EU gets one common basis across all member states.
DAC7 and the Platform Tax Transparency Act
Behind the abbreviation sits Directive (EU) 2021/514, the seventh amendment of the EU administrative cooperation directive. Hence the name: DAC stands for Directive on Administrative Cooperation, the 7 for the round of amendments. Some write DAC 7, others the DAC7 directive, and both mean the same thing.
Germany implemented the requirements in a law of its own, the Plattformen-Steuertransparenzgesetz, PStTG for short. Older texts also use the term DAC7 implementation act. The law has applied since 1 January 2023, and the first reporting period was the 2023 calendar year. So the pairing DAC7/PStTG describes nothing new, just the European rule and its German version.
One dividing line is worth drawing here: the PStTG governs the report, not the taxation. How much tax falls due on platform earnings still sits in the Income Tax Act (EStG) and the VAT Act (UStG). The DAC7 law creates transparency, not an extra levy.
Who reports and who gets reported
Most explainers online are written for platform operators. Sellers and landlords barely find themselves in them, even though the split of roles is what matters. There are exactly two.
The reporting platform operator carries the whole workload: it registers with the BZSt, meets its due-diligence duties, collects the details of reportable providers, checks them for plausibility and submits them on time. That chain of duties is the core of the DAC7 reporting obligation. A provider in the sense of the law is any person who sells, trades or lets through the platform, privately or commercially.
For providers, one task follows above all: supply the requested data. Plus one right that often gets overlooked. The platform has to disclose the same details to the provider as well. That statement arrives in January and is worth a look.
Which platforms are affected
It is not only the classic marketplace that is caught. Any digital platform is covered where providers and customers find each other and a deal is concluded. Whether the DAC7 law applies in Germany depends on the platform business model, not on where it is incorporated: operators outside the EU can be reportable too, as soon as providers inside the EU are active on them.
Pure classified-ad portals, where neither payment nor the contract runs through the platform, fall outside the scope depending on how they are set up. That can only be judged reliably for the individual platform. When in doubt the answer sits in its help pages, because an operator who is reportable knows it and writes it down.
Which activities fall under DAC7
The four relevant activities
The law lists four relevant activities in § 5 PStTG. Anything that does not fit under them triggers no report. Besides goods, DAC7 covers services, letting and means of transport. The important part is the right-hand column: the de-minimis threshold exists only for the sale of goods. Anyone letting property or offering services gets reported without any lower limit.
| Relevant activity | Typical example | Lower limit |
|---|---|---|
| Sale of goods | Clothing, electronics, collectibles through a marketplace | 30 sales and 2.000 € remuneration in the calendar year |
| Personal services | Design, copywriting, programming, delivery rides, tutoring | none |
| Letting of immovable property | Holiday flat, room, parking space, commercial space | none |
| Renting out means of transport | Car, campervan, boat, trailer | none |
Interim conclusion: a reporting duty, not a new tax. DAC7 creates transparency, not an extra levy. The platform supplies figures, the tax office assesses them under the tax law that already applies. Where the threshold sits depends on the activity.
From when a report is made
The threshold: 30 sales or 2.000 euros
For the sale of goods § 4 (5) PStTG provides an exemption, often called the de-minimis threshold. The statutory wording is stricter than many guides suggest: exempt is anyone who sold goods in “fewer than 30 cases” and received “less than 2.000 euros” in remuneration in total. At exactly 30 sales, or exactly 2.000 €, the exemption no longer applies. The reference period is the calendar year.
The decisive word is “and”. Both conditions have to hold for the exemption to apply. If one of them is exceeded, the report follows, even if the other stays far below its limit. Plenty of guides state it wrongly as an either-or. Anyone searching for an allowance in the Platform Tax Transparency Act, or for DAC7 2.000 euros, is looking for exactly this double condition.
| Sales in the year | Remuneration | Report | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 400 € | no report | Both limits respected |
| 45 | 900 € | is reported | Number of sales exceeded |
| 8 | 2.400 € | is reported | Remuneration exceeded |
| 31 | 2.100 € | is reported | Both limits exceeded |
Two details are easily missed. What counts is the remuneration, so the sales proceeds, not the profit. And every platform assesses on its own: several accounts or several portals do not lift the threshold, they rather multiply it. And the remuneration is the amount after deducting the fees, commissions and taxes the platform withholds; those amounts are additionally reported separately.
Which data is submitted
What has to be reported sits in § 14 PStTG. The catalogue runs longer than most people expect, yet it contains no bank statements and no details of individual items. These DAC7 data go to the BZSt:
The BZSt then passes the information on: to the competent local tax office, and through the automatic exchange of information to the tax authorities of other EU member states where a residence exists. On data protection the rule is: under § 22 PStTG the data is collected for the purposes of the taxation procedure and is therefore purpose-bound, and the platform has to inform the provider about the processing before the first report. Information about the stored data can be requested under Article 15 GDPR, towards tax authorities within the limits of §§ 32a to 32c AO.
Deadlines: 31 January
The reporting period is the calendar year. The DAC7 report has to reach the BZSt by 31 January of the following year. Within the same deadline the platform informs the provider about the details submitted, usually as an annual statement in the account or by email.
In practice that means the DAC7 report is available in January, long before the tax return falls due. That leaves time for a reconciliation against the provider’s own figures. Deviations can be reported to the platform and corrected there.
A widespread misunderstanding concerns enforcement. The provisions in § 25 PStTG address the platform operator. The reporting duty sits there, not with the private provider.
What the report means in practice
A report is not a tax assessment
The most common question after that first email: what do DAC7 and the tax office actually do with these figures? There is no DAC7 tax, and the BZSt answers the question clearly in its notes for providers. A report does not automatically produce a higher tax assessment. The tax office receives figures and can reconcile them with the tax return. Nothing more.
If the two match, nothing further happens. If they diverge, a query usually follows, and the provider’s own records settle it. Anyone who declares their platform earnings anyway has no extra work through DAC7.
Private sale, letting, services
The report is the same for everyone, the tax consequence is not. It depends on which activity runs through the platform. For private individuals and the DAC7 private sale, everyday life covers three constellations almost entirely, and this is how the rules are usually applied to them:
These are general rules, not an assessment of an individual case. How a specific constellation is to be classified is settled by the tax office or a tax adviser. For private individuals the PStTG is in most cases far more harmless than its reputation.
For self-employed providers
For DAC7 and the self-employed nothing changes about the tax liability, but plenty changes about traceability. The tax administration now knows the platform turnover quarter by quarter. Anyone who keeps earnings, fees and receipts together can explain every reported total without hunting for screenshots once the statement lands.
Four things pay off here: keep platform earnings separate from private money, keep the annual statements, record commissions as business expenses and keep an eye on VAT. A separate business account covers the first point, because platform payouts land there cleanly separated instead of disappearing between rent and groceries. For the second and third point a connected bookkeeping setup with a DATEV export helps, attaching receipts straight to the transaction.
On VAT the small-business scheme under § 19 UStG decides: whoever did not exceed 25.000 € in total turnover in the previous year and does not exceed 100.000 € in the current one charges no VAT. What that means in detail sits in our article on the small-business scheme. At the start of self-employment the route runs through registering as a freelancer or through the local trade office.
Interim conclusion: the activity is what decides. The report hits everyone alike, the tax consequence does not. Anyone selling their own everyday items usually pays nothing. Anyone letting property, offering services or buying in order to sell has taxable earnings and should document them cleanly.
The DAC7 form on the platform
Which details the platform asks for
The DAC7 form looks similar everywhere, because the legislator prescribes its content: name, address, date of birth, country of residence, tax identification number and, for companies, the VAT identification number. No platform asks for more, and at this point none may ask for more either.
Three numbers get confused constantly here. The tax identification number has eleven digits and stays with a person for life. The tax number is issued by the local tax office and changes on relocation. The VAT identification number is the one needed for business within the EU. The form asks for the first one. Where to find it or how to request a new one sits in our article on the German tax number.
If details are missing or wrong
If the details are missing, the platform cannot meet its own duty and therefore asks again. With the tax identification number in the profile the matter is settled in a few minutes. That matches the DAC7 experiences providers describe in forums: once the number is on file, the process runs without further queries.
The reverse case happens as well. If the annual statement is wrong, because a cancellation or a return is missing, a correction can be requested from the platform. If it stays inactive, the deviation can be explained to the tax office. Evidence collected as it accrues makes that easier than a reconstruction afterwards.
DAC7 on the big platforms
eBay, Amazon, Airbnb and others
The statutory threshold is the same everywhere, the communication is not. Some platforms ask for the tax identification number at registration, others only once the threshold comes close. So how DAC7 works at eBay, at Amazon or at Airbnb differs only in the process, not in the legal position.
| Platform | Relevant activity | When the report typically applies |
|---|---|---|
| eBay, Kleinanzeigen | Sale of goods | Above 30 sales or above 2.000 € in the calendar year |
| Amazon, Etsy | Sale of goods, mostly commercial | In practice almost always, since commercial accounts break the limits |
| Airbnb, Booking | Letting of immovable property | Without a lower limit, plus the address and days let |
| Freelance portals, delivery services | Personal services | Without a lower limit, from the first remuneration |
Second-hand fashion is the case that raises the most questions, because a lot of sales meet small amounts there. The logic is the same everywhere: the reporting threshold decides the report, income tax law decides the tax. For worn clothing and other second-hand goods that leads to no tax in most cases.
A business account for platform earnings
Earnings from marketplaces, portals and letting stay separate from private money. The Vivid business account offers sub-accounts with their own IBAN, receipts attached straight to the transaction and an export into bookkeeping through the DATEV connection.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What is DAC7?
DAC7 is an EU directive obliging platform operators to report their providers earnings to the tax authorities. In Germany it is implemented through the Plattformen-Steuertransparenzgesetz (PStTG) and has applied since 1 January 2023. No new tax arises from it, only a reporting duty for the platform.
From when is a report made under DAC7?
For the sale of goods, as soon as more than 30 sales or more than 2.000 € in remuneration accumulate in a calendar year. The exemption holds only while both limits are respected. For letting and for services there is no such exemption, and there the first payout already counts.
Which data is reported under DAC7?
Reported are name, address, date of birth, the tax identification number, the financial account identifier, the total remuneration per quarter, the number of activities and the fees withheld. For letting, the address and the days let are added. Individual items or bank statements are not part of it.
Do I have to pay tax because of DAC7?
DAC7 is not a new tax. Whether tax arises is decided by ordinary tax law: the sale of privately used everyday items stays outside taxation under § 23 EStG, while income from letting and commercial earnings are taxable. For an individual case the tax office or a tax adviser is the right address.
By when does the platform have to report?
The DAC7 report has to reach the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern by 31 January of the year following the reporting period. Within the same deadline the platform has to inform the provider about the reported data, as a rule through an annual statement. A reconciliation against the reported figures is worthwhile.
What is the Platform Tax Transparency Act?
The Plattformen-Steuertransparenzgesetz, also written Plattform-Steuertransparenzgesetz and PStTG for short, is the German law implementing DAC7. It has applied since 1 January 2023 and governs the registration, due-diligence and reporting duties of platform operators. For providers it results in the duty to supply the requested data.
Does DAC7 also apply to private sales?
Yes, a DAC7 private sale is reported too, because the reporting duty does not distinguish between private and commercial. For private individuals the Plattformen-Steuertransparenzgesetz offers only the de-minimis threshold of 30 sales and 2.000 € as an exemption. In tax terms the private sale of everyday items remains untouched by it.
Do I need a business account for platform earnings?
It is not legally required for sole traders. In practice it is the simplest way to keep platform earnings, fees and receipts traceable, precisely because DAC7 makes the turnover visible quarter by quarter. Vivid offers a business account for self-employed people with sub-accounts, Visa Business cards and a DATEV export.
As of August 2026. Information without guarantee, rules and thresholds can change. In case of doubt the tax office or a tax adviser settles the individual case. This article serves general information purposes and does not constitute legal, financial or tax advice. It is not a recommendation and not a basis for financial decisions.
