IEIM901630 - Excluded Sellers

Some Sellers who represent a very limited compliance risk are specifically excluded from the scope of the reporting rules. There are 4 categories of ‘Excluded Sellers’:

  1. Entity Sellers for which the Platform Operator (PO) facilitated more than 2000 relevant services for the rental of immoveable property in respect of a property listing during the Reportable Period.
  2. Sellers that are government entities.
  3. Entity Sellers whose stock is regularly traded on an established securities market, or Entity Sellers which are related to those traded Sellers.
  4. Sellers for which the PO solely facilitated less than 30 Relevant Activities for the sale of goods, and for which the total Consideration paid or credited did not exceed 2000 euros during the Reportable Period. Both tests must be met for this exclusion to apply.

The first category is aimed at excluding large providers of hotel and similar accommodation that provide such services at a high frequency and which do not present the same risk as rental property owners in the sharing and gig economy. Such large businesses will be aware of their tax obligations and a tax authority should generally be able to verify their compliance on the basis of other existing information sources. However, the exclusion is very specific and should not be extended to other types of Sellers that may be perceived to be ‘low risk’ for compliance purposes.

The second category includes the government of a jurisdiction, and any political subdivision or local authority of a jurisdiction. It also includes any wholly owned agency, controlled entity or instrumentality of a jurisdiction.

The third category is intended to cover Sellers that are listed entities and any entities that are related to the traded Entity Seller. An entity is related to another entity if either entity controls the other or the two entities are under common control. Such Entity Sellers generally tend to be subject to other forms of regulatory supervision and transparency, including filing obligations. Again, the exclusion is very specific and Entity Sellers which are regulated but which are not listed will not be Excluded Sellers.

The fourth category is aimed at excluding ‘casual’ Sellers who occasionally sell goods for small amounts. Both conditions in terms of the number of sales and the total amount of payments must be met for the exclusion to apply. Where a Seller has multiple accounts on a Platform, these should be aggregated to determine whether this category of exclusion applies. This exclusion only applies in respect of the sale of goods; it does not apply to the provision of relevant services.