Selling on Etsy in Germany 2026: Gewerbe, taxes, fees and duties

Key points

• Gewerbe: required once you sell repeatedly with profit intent. Registration costs a one-off €15–60, and there is no minimum amount.
• Etsy fees 2026: $0.20 per listing, 6.5% transaction and 4% plus €0.30 payment processing. On a €35 order you keep €30.84.
• VAT on the fees: if Etsy bills them without VAT, you owe 19% under reverse charge, even as a Kleinunternehmer (§ 13b(5) UStG).
• Income tax: on the profit, added to your salary. With €40,000 taxable income from a job, €5,640 of Etsy profit costs €1,841 more tax (2026 rates).
• Etsy reports: from 30 sales or €2,000 a year, by 31 January of the following year, to the Federal Central Tax Office (PStTG).
• Packaging: LUCID registration and a dual system from the first parcel. Without registration Etsy may not show your listings.

Private seller or Gewerbe: when you must register

Selling your grandmother's vases once is private. Listing handmade candles every month is a business. The tax office checks three signs: repetition, profit intent and market presence. An Etsy shop usually meets all three from the first serious listing.

There is no fixed hobby limit in euros. €200 a month on the side is a Gewerbe if you sell according to plan. Only occasional sales of your own used items stay private. If you buy to resell or make things yourself, you are a trader, even alongside a job. Crafts and handmade goods are usually a Gewerbe, not freelance art: you sell products, not one-off works.

Online sellers are not rare. Of the 4,423 tax and trade registrations made with Norman in 2025, 274 came from e-commerce, or 6.2%; 10.6% of those named dropshipping explicitly (Self-employed professions in Germany, registrations made with Norman, free-text self-descriptions categorised).

And the tax office learns about your shop without a registration: Etsy reports every seller with at least 30 sales or €2,000 in turnover a year to the Federal Central Tax Office (PStTG).

Becoming an Etsy seller: registration in six steps

You can finish the setup in a morning. After that you only wait for the tax number.

A business account is not mandatory for sole traders. It keeps Etsy payouts, material purchases and private spending apart from day one, and that is what makes bookkeeping fast later.

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Etsy fees 2026 and how to book them

Etsy deducts its fees directly from the sale. All of them are business expenses:

One order worked through: a candle for €30 plus €5 shipping, so €35.

You book €35 revenue and €4.16 expense, not €30.84 revenue. The profit is the same, but your Kleinunternehmer thresholds, your VAT and the match with Etsy's report to the tax office all depend on gross revenue. If you book only payouts, you report about 12% less turnover than Etsy reports.

VAT on Etsy's fees

Etsy Ireland UC bills the fees, so the supplier sits in another EU country. What you do depends on your monthly Etsy fee invoice:

For Kleinunternehmer this means the 19% on fees costs money either way. In the first case a VAT return comes on top, which many forget until the tax office writes.

Kleinunternehmer or standard VAT?

If your turnover was at most €25,000 last year and does not exceed €100,000 this year, you can use the Kleinunternehmer rule (§ 19 UStG). Cross €100,000 during the year and standard VAT applies from that very sale.

Pure handmade shops with little material usually do better as Kleinunternehmer: the lost input VAT barely matters and prices stay low for consumers. If you buy a lot of stock or sell to businesses, standard VAT gets you the input VAT back on purchases and Etsy fees. Opting out of the Kleinunternehmer rule binds you for five calendar years (§ 19(3) UStG).

Expert opinion

Setting up the shop on Etsy is something we often see done wrong among sellers who are just starting out. Most self-employed people start as Kleinunternehmer, and they need to check that Etsy actually recognises that status.

Which taxes apply and when

You calculate the profit in the EÜR and file it with Anlage G as part of your income tax return. For sole traders, trade tax is largely credited against income tax under § 35 EStG; the maths is in Trade tax in Germany.

Worked example: what is left of Etsy revenue

A candle maker sells part-time as a Kleinunternehmer for €12,000 a year:

As a Kleinunternehmer she pays no VAT on sales and no trade tax (far below €24,500). Income tax still applies, because the Etsy profit is added to her salary:

So about 33% of the €5,640 profit goes to the tax office, without solidarity surcharge, which does not apply at this income, and without church tax. The tax comes with the assessment, often more than a year after the sales, and then the tax office sets prepayments. Put about a third of every profit aside from the start.

Selling abroad

• Consumers in the EU: up to €10,000 of distance sales a year to all EU countries together, German VAT applies. Above that, the buyer country's VAT applies and you report it through the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) at the BZSt. Etsy does not collect this VAT for German sellers: the marketplace rule in § 3(3a) UStG covers only sellers outside the EU.
• Businesses in the EU: a VAT-exempt intra-community supply if the buyer has a valid VAT ID. Check it with the BZSt before invoicing and report the sale in the EC Sales List.
• UK and US: on orders to the UK up to £135, Etsy charges UK VAT; in the US it charges state sales tax. For you it is a VAT-exempt export, as long as you keep the shipping proof.

Duties beyond tax

Packaging (LUCID): if you ship packaged goods to consumers, register free of charge with the Central Agency Packaging Register before the first parcel and join a dual system. Since July 2022 Etsy must check that you are registered (§ 7(7) and § 9(5) VerpackG). Without a dual system the fine is up to €200,000, without registration up to €100,000 (§ 36 VerpackG).

Withdrawal: consumers have 14 days to withdraw. You refund the price plus standard shipping. Items made to the customer's specification are exempt, such as a necklace engraved with a name (§ 312g(2) no. 1 BGB). Book a refund as a reduction of revenue; for invoices you need a cancellation invoice.

Invoices: you do not have to issue invoices to consumers, not even for large amounts. Business customers get an invoice with all details under § 14 UStG, as a Kleinunternehmer with the note on the § 19 UStG exemption. You must be able to receive e-invoices from German businesses; you must issue them from 2027 with over €800,000 prior-year turnover, from 2028 as any standard-VAT business. Kleinunternehmer are exempt.

What Etsy reports to the tax office

Since 2023 Etsy reports every year by 31 January to the Federal Central Tax Office: name, address, date of birth, tax ID, bank details, number of sales and your revenue per quarter, plus the fees withheld. Only sellers below 30 sales and below €2,000 a year are not reported. Etsy sends you a copy. The tax office matches it with your return.

If you sold above the threshold for years without a return, correct it before the tax office asks. A late return or voluntary disclosure costs far less than a discovered case. The details are in the PStTG article.

How to do it with Norman

Etsy sellers have hundreds of small bookings a year, fees in two currencies and reverse charge every month. Norman takes that off your plate:

1. Connect your business account through bank sync. Every Etsy payout lands in Bookkeeping automatically, categorised by the AI autopilot.
2. Upload the monthly Etsy fee invoice or photograph it with the receipt scan. Norman reads amount and date and matches it to the payment.
3. If the invoice shows no VAT, set the Supplier country to Inside the European Union under Tax & VAT and choose No VAT was charged. Norman reports the 19% in the VAT return, with input VAT deduction or, as a Kleinunternehmer, without.
4. Under Taxes, open the EÜR for the year. Norman fills it from your bookings, you check the Preview and file it straight to the tax office, then the income tax return with Anlage G.

The Klein plan costs €9 a month billed yearly, with bank sync, EÜR, income tax and the reverse-charge months. Standard-VAT sellers get the monthly VAT return in the Pro plan. Writing invoices and scanning receipts is free. How Norman builds your EÜR is on the page EÜR with Norman.

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