Selling online without a VAT number: when you can and when you can't

Anyone starting to sell something online, handmade items, secondhand goods, a small range of products, runs into the same question almost immediately: from what revenue onward do you need a VAT number? People usually search for it hoping for a precise figure, a threshold under which they're safe. That figure doesn't exist. Italian law sets no revenue amount under which you can sell online without a VAT number: what decides is habitualness, meaning repetition over time and organisation of the activity, not the amount collected.

The rule that counts: habitualness, not revenue

Two provisions draw the line. Article 2082 of the Italian civil code defines an entrepreneur as anyone who "professionally carries out an organised economic activity aimed at producing or exchanging goods or services." Article 55 of the Income Tax Code (TUIR, Presidential Decree 917/1986) ties business income to activity carried out "as a habitual profession, even if not exclusive," echoing the same principle in article 2195 of the civil code. Mirroring this, article 67, paragraph 1, letter i), of the same code classifies as miscellaneous income, meaning outside the business-income regime, only "income from commercial activities not carried out habitually" (source: TUIR, Presidential Decree 917/1986, checked 17 October 2026).

None of these provisions mentions an amount in euros. What draws the line is repetition over time and organisation: sales that follow one another regularly, goods bought specifically to resell, a channel that's always active, a website, a shop on a marketplace, a social page used consistently to sell. A single, isolated sale, an item you no longer need, stays outside this scope whatever amount it fetches.

The 5,000-euro myth

A figure that circulates often online, and it's a mix-up. The 5,000 euros a year comes from article 44, paragraph 2, of decree-law 269/2003 (converted into law 326/2003): it sets the threshold above which anyone doing occasional self-employed work, meaning a service, not selling a good, has to register with INPS's Gestione separata (source: decree-law 269/2003, art. 44, confirmed by INPS circular 103/2004, checked 17 October 2026). It covers a social-security contribution on a service rendered, not the sale of merchandise, and it isn't the rule that triggers the VAT-registration requirement. Anyone selling goods online who applies this threshold by analogy is using the wrong answer to a different question.

Platforms report to the tax authority: the DAC7 threshold

Since 2023, online marketplaces (eBay, Vinted, Subito and similar platforms) have had an obligation of their own, separate from the seller's: reporting to Italy's Revenue Agency the data of anyone selling above a certain threshold. The rule comes from the EU directive (EU) 2021/514 of 22 March 2021, transposed into Italian law by legislative decree 32/2023 and implemented by Italy's Revenue Agency's provision of 20 November 2023. The platform is exempt from reporting only if, within the same year, the seller stays under both thresholds: fewer than 30 sales of goods and less than 2,000 euros in total payments on that platform. Exceeding even one of the two is enough to trigger the reporting obligation (source: Revenue Agency provision, prot. no. 406671/2023 of 20 November 2023, checked 17 October 2026).

It's a point that causes confusion, because the numbers seem to offer the precise threshold that the income-tax rule doesn't. They don't: staying under the DAC7 thresholds only means the platform doesn't send your data to the tax authority, not that the activity is automatically occasional. Exceeding them only means the platform does send it, not that you automatically need a VAT number. What determines the nature of the activity remains the habitualness rule described above, a separate assessment from that threshold.

What the Court of Cassation ruled

The habitualness rule isn't theoretical: case law has already applied it to online sales. With ruling no. 7552 of 21 March 2025, the Court of Cassation judged the case of a seller without a VAT number who had sold shoes on an online auction platform, with over 1,600 sales in two years. The Court held that the seriality and continuity of the sales were enough on their own to establish the habitual exercise of a business activity, for both income tax and VAT-registration purposes, without needing to prove the existence of a formal organisation, employees, premises, a professionally managed stock: a requirement the ruling places only within the scope of a separate tax, the regional tax on productive activities (IRAP) (source: Court of Cassation, ruling no. 7552 of 21 March 2025, checked through tax-law commentary on 17 October 2026). The number of sales, on its own, can be enough.

Where to start

The rule is clear in its logic, less so when applied to an actual case. A few occasional sales of personal items stay outside the business-income regime. A regular flow, goods bought to be resold, a channel that's always active, point toward needing a VAT number regardless of the amount collected. In the grey area between the two, the judgement should be made with whoever handles the business's tax side: an accountant looks at the real frequency of sales, where the goods come from, the actual organisation, not at a threshold the law doesn't set.

Once the VAT number is open, what has to appear on the site that sells also changes: it has to be shown on the home page, along with the other mandatory data for anyone selling online, a separate obligation from the one this article covers. I write about it in VAT number, registered office, REA: the mandatory data on your company's website. If you want to take stock of your business's digital setup once the tax side is clear, that's something we can cover in the digital check-up; otherwise get in touch.