Montoro wants sales tax paid on ebay or wallapop

The number of users who sell second-hand items on pages such as eBay, Wallapop or Milanuncios has grown significantly in recent years. It is a simple way to sell those things that you no longer want or need. For these users now comes news that surely will not sit too well. Cristóbal Montoro, Minister of Finance and Public Function wants sales taxes to be paid on these platforms.

Montoro wants sales tax paid on eBay or Wallapop

As he comments, the sale of second-hand products on these platforms are subject to tax. There is no difference with other commercial transactions. The Minister comments that online commerce cannot be different from normal commercial transactions. Because normal business transactions are taxed.

Pay taxes for selling on Wallpop or eBay

So those users who sell their second-hand products on Wallapop, eBay, Milanuncios or Amazon would be forced to pay taxes. These transactions would be taxed by the capital transfer tax. In addition, in case there is surplus value (sell the product at a price higher than its value), it is also necessary to compute personal income tax.

According to Montoro there is nothing new, you just have to interpret the current legislation. So it implies that all users are required to do so, according to legislation. Although his plans to put this idea into practice have not been discussed.

The main problem with Mr. Montoro's reasoning is that there is no difference between users who sell a couple of products that they do not want to use anymore, with people who have made selling products online their main economic activity. The transactions in these cases are completely different, so it is not possible to group them all under the same umbrella. Since while one does not obtain benefits, the other is acting as if he had a business. What do you think about Mr. Montoro's statements?