--- title: "Reselling Taxes in Canada: Does the CRA Know About Your Online Sales? (2026)" url: https://shopfront.app/blog/canada-reseller-tax-guide-2026/ published: 2026-05-22T00:00:00.000Z updated: 2026-05-22T00:00:00.000Z licence: "© Shopfront. All rights reserved. Cite with attribution." --- ## Will eBay, Poshmark or Etsy report my sales to the CRA? Short answer: yes, they very likely already have. Since 1 January 2024, Canada has required online marketplaces to collect seller data and hand it to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) once a year. The platforms you sell on — eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, Vinted and others — now send an annual information return to the CRA, and a copy to you, every 31 January. This rule comes from the OECD Model Rules, which Canada wrote into Part XX of the Income Tax Act as the "Reporting Rules for Digital Platform Operators". The first returns, covering the 2024 calendar year, were due by 31 January 2025. So the data has been flowing for over a year now. Here is the part most guides get wrong. There is an "excluded seller" carve-out, and it is small. A platform does **not** have to report you for a year only if it facilitated **fewer than 30 sales AND total consideration of no more than about CAD $2,800** (the CAD equivalent of EUR 2,000) for you over that year. **Both** conditions have to be met. Hit 30 sales — even of cheap items — and you are reported. Cross roughly $2,800 in total sales — even in only a handful of transactions — and you are reported. A few important caveats on that threshold, as of 2026: - The precise CAD figure is set each year against the foreign-exchange rate to the EUR 2,000 reference, so treat "about CAD $2,800" as a guide, not a fixed line. Check the figure for the relevant year on the CRA's own page. - Being an excluded seller only means the platform does not file a report about you. It does **not** make your income tax-free. The CRA can still assess income you failed to report, with or without a platform slip. So the real question was never "will they report me?" It is "is my selling activity taxable?" — and that is decided entirely separately, by what you are selling and why. ## Business income vs personal-use property: the line that actually matters The CRA treats two kinds of online sellers completely differently. Getting this wrong is where people either overpay or, worse, underreport. ### If you buy to resell, it is business income If you acquire goods **with the intention of reselling them at a profit** — thrift flips, retail arbitrage, sourcing stock to mark up — any gain is **business income**. That is the heavily taxed category, and there are two things to understand about it: 1. It is taxed as **ordinary income** at your marginal rate, the same as wages. Not the lighter capital-gains treatment. 2. There is **no tax-free threshold**. The first dollar of net profit is taxable. The "excluded seller" $2,800/30-sale line is about _platform reporting only_ — it is not an income-tax allowance. You report this on **Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities**, filed with your personal T1 return. The CRA decides whether you are "in business" by weighing your intent, the frequency of your sales, and whether you operate in a businesslike way (sourcing inventory, advertising, keeping the activity going). Someone flipping finds every week is running a business in the CRA's eyes, full stop. ### If you sell your own used stuff, it is personal-use property Clearing out your own closet, garage or attic is different. Your own used belongings are **personal-use property (PUP)**, and the rules are gentle: - A gain on a personal item is only a **taxable capital gain** when the **proceeds for that single item exceed $1,000**. The CRA applies a **$1,000 floor to both the proceeds and the cost** when you do the math, which is why ordinary household items almost never trigger anything. - Selling personal items **at a loss** is generally **not deductible and not reportable**. You cannot use the loss on your old couch to offset other income. The catch: this only applies if you are genuinely decluttering. If you are **frequently** reselling used goods — buying up other people's secondhand items to flip — the CRA treats that as a business, and you are back in the T2125, fully-taxable column. > Quick test: did you buy it to sell it? That is business income from dollar one. Did you buy it to use it, and you are now moving it on? That is personal-use property, and likely nothing to report unless a single item clears $1,000. ## GST/HST: the $30,000 threshold Income tax is one layer. Sales tax is a separate one, and it has its own trigger. You become a GST/HST registrant once your **taxable revenues exceed $30,000 CAD** — measured either in a **single calendar quarter** or over **four consecutive calendar quarters**. Below that, you are a "small supplier" and you are not required to register or charge GST/HST. Once you are over the line, the rate you charge depends on the **province of your customer**, not a single national number. As of 2026: - **5% GST** in Alberta and the territories (Yukon, NWT, Nunavut) - **13% HST** in Ontario - **14% HST** in Nova Scotia (cut from 15% on 1 April 2025), and **15% HST** in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador - **5% GST plus a separate provincial sales tax** in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba - **5% GST plus QST** in Quebec There is no single "Canadian sales tax rate" — anyone who quotes you one is oversimplifying. Once registered, you charge the right combination for the destination and remit it. ## A worked example: the flipper vs the declutterer Numbers make this concrete. Two sellers, two very different outcomes. **Seller A — the flipper.** Priya sources clothing from thrift shops and outlet clearances, photographs it, and lists it across eBay and Poshmark. Over the year she makes around 400 sales and, after the cost of her stock, packaging and platform fees, she nets **$4,000 in profit**. - The platforms report her to the CRA (she is far past both 30 sales and ~$2,800). - She bought to resell, so all $4,000 is **business income**. - She reports it on **Form T2125** and pays income tax at her **marginal rate** — no threshold shields any of it. - Her revenue is well under $30,000, so she is still a small supplier and does **not** have to register for or charge GST/HST yet. **Seller B — the declutterer.** Marc sells an old dining table for $600, a bookshelf for $150 and a bike for $400 as he downsizes. - Each item is **personal-use property**, and each sold for **under $1,000**. - There is **nothing to report** and no tax owed on these sales. - Even if a platform sends him an information slip because he happened to cross 30 sales of small items, the slip does not create a tax bill — his items are PUP under $1,000 each. Same marketplaces, same year, completely different tax positions — because of _why_ they were selling, not _how much_ the platform reported. Want to see what a platform actually keeps before you ever get to "profit"? Run the numbers on our [Poshmark Fee Calculator](/poshmark-calculator/) or [eBay Fee Calculator](/ebay-calculator/) so the figure you carry into your T2125 is your real net. ## Frequently asked questions ### Do I have to report online sales if the platform didn't send me a slip? Yes, if the income is taxable. The excluded-seller rule (fewer than 30 sales and under about CAD $2,800) only governs whether the **platform** files a report. It does not decide whether **you** owe tax. Business income is reportable from the first dollar regardless of any slip. ### Is the ~$2,800 / 30-sale figure a tax-free allowance? No. It is a **reporting** threshold for marketplaces, not an income-tax exemption. There is no tax-free threshold for reselling business income in Canada. Treat that line as "will the CRA get a copy of my numbers", not "how much can I earn tax-free". ### I'm just decluttering my own closet — do I owe anything? Almost certainly not. Your own used items are personal-use property, and a gain is only taxable when a **single item's proceeds exceed $1,000**. Most household resale falls under that, and losses on personal items are not deductible. The exception is if you are reselling _frequently_ enough that the CRA considers it a business. ### When do I have to register for GST/HST? Once your taxable revenues **exceed $30,000** in a single calendar quarter or across four consecutive calendar quarters. Below that you are a small supplier and don't have to charge it. The rate you then charge depends on your customer's province (5% GST up to 15% HST, plus provincial tax in BC/SK/MB/QC). ### What form do reselling profits go on? Profit from buying to resell is business income, reported on **Form T2125** attached to your personal **T1** return, and taxed at your marginal rate. ## A note on records The cleanest way to stay on the right side of all of this is to keep what every business keeps: what you paid for each item, what it sold for, and what the platform charged you. If you cross-list the same inventory across several marketplaces, that record-keeping multiplies fast — keeping one source of truth for your listings and sales (rather than reconciling eBay, Poshmark and Etsy by hand) is exactly the kind of friction [Shopfront](/) is built to remove. ## Disclaimer This article is general information only and is **not** tax advice. Canadian tax rules are detailed and change, and your situation may differ from the examples here. For anything specific, consult the **Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)** directly or speak with a qualified accountant before you file. --- **Keep reading:** [Depop fees in Canada](/blog/depop-fees-canada/) breaks down what that platform actually takes, and our [US reseller tax guide for 2026](/blog/us-reseller-tax-guide-2026/) covers the equivalent rules — the 1099-K and Schedule C — for sellers south of the border.