A letter from the tax office that mentions your Vinted or Leboncoin sales is not an accusation: it is a request for information or a notice of proposed adjustment, and you have 30 days to reply. What you need to check first is the exact nature of the letter, then whether your sales are the resale of personal objects (not taxable in the vast majority of cases) or a regular buy-to-resell activity (taxable from the first euro). What follows explains the procedure, the deadlines and the penalties actually provided for by tax law, without inventing anything about what awaits you.
What type of letter have you received, exactly?
Two very different documents circulate under the generic term "tax audit", and confusion between the two feeds a good part of the worry that follows their receipt.
- A request for information or clarification: the administration asks you for details on sums it has spotted, without having yet taken a position. You can reply, provide supporting documents, and nothing has been decided yet on its side.
- A notice of proposed adjustment: the administration has already concluded that you owe additional tax and sets out its reasoning and figures. This is where the 30-day reply deadline formally applies, with the possibility of accepting, contesting point by point, or asking for an extra period.
The second document is more binding than the first, but neither closes the file: in both cases, you keep the possibility of replying and making your arguments before a final decision is taken.
Why does the tax office already know about your Vinted sales?
The answer comes down to one word: DAC7. This European directive obliges platforms such as Vinted and Leboncoin to pass on to the tax administration each year the data of a seller as soon as they exceed 30 transactions OR €2,000 of revenue over the calendar year, either threshold being enough to trigger the transmission.
The point that the tax administration itself takes care to clarify: this flagging does not automatically make your sales taxable. According to impots.gouv.fr, these thresholds only trigger an obligation to transmit information, and the amounts may appear in your pre-filled return without being taxable. The administration itself gives the example of a seller who sold 32 children's garments for €160 in total: the 30-transaction threshold is exceeded, but the sale remains non-taxable since these are personal objects the seller no longer used, not objects bought to be resold.
In other words, receiving a letter that follows a DAC7 transmission means nothing in itself about the substance of your file. What matters is the real nature of your activity.
Selling your personal belongings or buying to resell: the question that decides everything
This is the central point of any reply to the administration. The resale of used personal objects, what you wore, what you no longer use, is not taxable income, even if repeated and even beyond the DAC7 thresholds. Buying goods in order to resell them at a margin, on a recurring basis, is on the other hand a taxable commercial activity from the first euro, regardless of the amount received.
Our article Vinted taxes in 2026: do you need to declare? details this boundary, the rare exceptions (such as a single high-value object) and the micro-BIC regime that applies if you come under buy-to-resell. If you receive a letter from the administration, this is the first reflex to have before any reply: can you show, with invoices or purchase history, that what you sold belonged to you and that you had not bought it to resell?
How do you reply to a request for information?
A request for information or clarification does not have a reply deadline set by law in the same way as a notice of proposed adjustment, but a reasonable deadline (often 30 days) is generally stated in the letter itself: it is better to respect it, since failure to reply may lead the administration to move straight to a notice of proposed adjustment, or even to an assessment ex officio in certain cases.
Reply with verifiable facts: history of your sales on the platform, proof of purchase of the objects concerned (till receipts, invoices), an explanation of where the goods sold came from. A precise, documented reply that clearly distinguishes what comes from your personal wardrobe from what does not reduces the risk of the file moving towards an adjustment.
Notice of proposed adjustment: the 30-day deadline and what to do
If the letter received is indeed a notice of proposed adjustment, article L. 57 of the Book of Tax Procedures gives you 30 days from receipt to send your acceptance or observations. This deadline can be extended by a further 30 days if you ask the administration before it expires, bringing the possible total to 60 days.
In your reply, you have three options: accept the proposed adjustment, contest it in whole or in part with arguments and supporting documents, or ask for the additional period to prepare a more complete file. No reply within the deadline amounts to tacit acceptance of the sums proposed, which makes silence rarely in your interest.
What penalties apply if the reassessment is confirmed?
Tax law provides for ordinary penalties, which are not specific to Vinted or Leboncoin resellers but apply to every taxpayer:
- Late-payment interest of 0.20% per month (article 1727 of the French General Tax Code), running from the first day of the month following the one in which the tax should have been paid, until actual payment.
- A 10% surcharge in the absence of a formal notice, or if you file your return within 30 days of a formal notice; 40% if you have not filed it within that period (article 1728).
- A 40% surcharge for a deliberate breach, or 80% for fraudulent manoeuvres or concealment, for a return judged insufficient or inaccurate (article 1729).
These rates vary according to the seriousness found by the administration, not according to the amount at stake: a small reassessment can carry a 40% surcharge if bad faith is found, just as a larger file may result in late-payment interest only if the error is judged to be in good faith.
Can the right to make a mistake still spare you a penalty?
Yes, if you act before the file is settled. The right to make a mistake lets a taxpayer acting in good faith correct an inaccuracy or omission without a financial penalty. In practice, article 1727 of the CGI reduces late-payment interest by 50% if you file a voluntary amended return before the administration's reassessment period expires, provided you pay the amounts due within the deadlines shown on the tax notice (or comply with an accepted payment plan).
This mechanism starts from the principle that the error or omission was not made deliberately. It does not apply if the administration finds bad faith or fraudulent manoeuvres: in that case, it is the surcharges of article 1729, not the reduction under the right to make a mistake, that apply.
What this article does not replace
Nothing here constitutes personalised tax advice: each situation depends on specific facts (nature of the sales, purchase history, exact content of the letter received) that only the tax office that issued the letter, or a tax law professional, can assess with you. If you receive a notice of proposed adjustment, the safest course remains to reply within the deadlines and, if in doubt about the amounts or the arguments to raise, to get support before the reply deadline expires.
Staying one step ahead next time
What most files that get complicated have in common is the absence of a clear history: impossible to say quickly what was sold, when, on which platform and for what amount. Centralised tracking of your sales, marketplace by marketplace, avoids reconstructing twelve months of activity the day a letter arrives.
Some StoFlow plans include an accounting export, which helps keep this tracking up to date; it is not a tax filing service, only a tool that keeps your figures within reach. If you still sell from a single personal account while your activity looks like regular buy-to-resell, our guide becoming a professional seller on Vinted explains how to create a micro-enterprise free of charge on the INPI (French IP and business registry office) one-stop shop, and what this status changes in practice day to day.
Remember the essentials: a letter from the tax office opens a procedure with precise deadlines, not an immediate penalty. Identify the type of letter, reply within the deadline (30 days, extendable once), and clearly distinguish your personal sales from any buy-to-resell activity before replying.
Sources
- Comment déclarer mes revenus issus de l'économie collaborative (DAC7, seuils et non-imposition automatique) - accessed 22 September 2026
- Je m'informe sur le droit à l'erreur - accessed 22 September 2026
- Article 1727 du Code général des impôts (intérêt de retard, réduction de 50 % en cas de régularisation spontanée) - accessed 22 September 2026
- Article 1728 du Code général des impôts (majorations pour défaut ou retard de déclaration) - accessed 22 September 2026
- Article 1729 du Code général des impôts (majorations pour insuffisance de déclaration) - accessed 22 September 2026
- BOFiP - Effets de la proposition de rectification (délai de réponse de 30 jours, prorogation) - accessed 22 September 2026
