Irish packing income: does DAC7’s 30-sale exemption apply?

You find packing work from home, then read that platforms only report people after a certain number of sales. It is tempting to count your parcels against that number. The first question is what you are being paid for. This guide focuses on that distinction for Irish senders and on the records needed to understand a report. Revenue’s DAC7 pages were checked on 10 October 2026. For the separate question of your overall tax position, use the Irish side-income overview.

Are you selling the contents or providing a service? #

In AirPost’s packing arrangement, a shop sends you its products and packaging. You prepare its customer orders and hand over the labelled parcels for an agreed fee. You are being paid for performing the task. You have not bought the stock to resell it, and the customer’s merchandise payment is not your packing income. Ownership and the payment arrangement matter more than the presence of a cardboard box.

Revenue includes personal services in the relevant activities covered by DAC7. Its definition covers time-based or task-based work, including work performed physically offline after a platform facilitates it. Applying that definition to the arrangement described above points to a service. That is the reason for the distinction here. For an actual report, use the information issued by the responsible operator and ask it to explain any activity classification that does not match your records.

What does the small-goods-sales exclusion actually cover? #

Revenue’s excluded-seller page describes a specific exclusion for sellers of goods, combining a transaction-count condition with a monetary limit. Its examples show why neither condition works alone: 35 goods sales totalling €1,750 are reportable, while 15 goods sales totalling €1,500 meet the exclusion. Those are Revenue’s examples of goods activity, rather than a calculation of anyone’s taxable profit.

Your service does not acquire that exclusion simply because you completed fewer than 30 tasks or earned little from them. Other statutory exclusions and the operator’s reporting scope are separate questions. The practical point for an individual preparing shop orders is narrower: the small-goods-sales rule does not answer whether the service income is reported. Nor does splitting the same type of work between several shops turn it into selling unwanted belongings.

How do 20, 29 and 30 paid parcels compare? #

These original scenarios use AirPost’s suggested small-parcel fee of €2.25 and its 3% payout commission. They assume the stated tasks were completed and paid, with one illustrative payout of each batch. The counts are deliberately around the number in the goods rule. None changes the underlying service into a sale of goods, and none tells you whether Income Tax is payable.

The first column describes work performed. The next describes earned fees. The final column describes an illustrative transfer after a charge. They are useful records of different events. If an annual statement uses one basis and your spreadsheet uses another, a difference can exist without either figure being fabricated. Identify the definition of the statement’s amount before deciding which total should equal your bank deposits.

Does reporting mean you owe tax on the full payment? #

No. Revenue explicitly says DAC7 did not introduce new tax obligations for people using platforms. Existing tax rules still determine the treatment of the activity. A reporting total is information supplied by an operator, while a taxable-profit calculation considers the relevant income and allowable items. Receiving a statement is therefore a reason to reconcile your records, rather than a bill for the amount printed on it.

The reverse assumption is also unsafe: absence from a particular report does not establish that your income is tax-free. You need to declare additional income under the rules that apply to you. Keep the reporting question and the tax-return question on separate lines of your checklist. For PAYE workers, the existing Form 12 or Form 11 guide deals with choosing the declaration route; this article deals with understanding platform information.

Which figures should a reporting statement help you explain? #

Revenue’s reporting guidance lists quarterly consideration paid or credited, quarterly activity counts, and fees, commissions or taxes withheld or charged. Identifying information and available financial-account information are also included. That structure means the annual total alone is not the whole story. Ask which figures correspond to gross fees, deductions and the statement’s reported consideration before attempting to rebuild a return from transfers.

Prepare a simple reconciliation with a reference for each item. Start with the paid work in the relevant period, record the service fee, then identify deductions and transfers. If money remains in a platform balance, preserve the record explaining it. A change of bank account should not erase the link between the work and the payments. Keep corrections with the original records so the final total can be followed.

1. Identify the statement’s reporting period, currency and description of the activity.
2. Match its activity counts against completed paid work, using order references rather than the shop’s customer sales totals.
3. Reconcile the service fees with the consideration figure according to the statement’s definition.
4. Check commission and other deductions separately, including any differences caused by several payouts.
5. Match the transfers to bank records and keep an explanation for credits, retained balances or corrections.

Why might the figures differ from your bank deposits? #

Your bank shows money transferred to that account. The operator’s records may distinguish earned amounts, credits and withdrawals. Several batches can be paid out together; one batch can relate to a different reporting period from its transfer. Do not resolve a mismatch by silently changing the service-fee total to the bank total. Write down the timing difference and ask the operator about any amount you cannot explain from the available records.

For example, your spreadsheet might list the three hypothetical batches above individually while the bank shows a combined withdrawal. The individual work records still matter. Equally, a refunded or corrected item needs its own reference rather than disappearing from the history. This is a recordkeeping example, not a claim about how every platform reports each adjustment. The issued statement and its explanation provide the basis for your reconciliation.

Which personal details can a platform legitimately request? #

Revenue lists information required from reportable individual sellers, including name, primary address, tax identification numbers and date of birth. A request for tax information can therefore have a real reporting purpose. It does not, by itself, establish that the person requesting it represents your platform. Verify the request through the account or the operator’s established support channel before sending sensitive documents.

If a request arrives unexpectedly, compare it with what your authenticated account says. Check who needs the information, why it is required and how it will be submitted. You can ask the operator to explain the reporting obligation without inventing a different identity or using someone else’s bank details. Keep proof of the information you provided and correct an outdated address or tax identifier through the proper process.

When should you expect the statement for 2026? #

Revenue’s overview uses the calendar year for the reporting period. Its published 2026 example covers 1 January to 31 December 2026, with operator filing and the seller’s copy due by 31 January 2027. The platform deadline concerns reporting information; it is not a replacement deadline for your own income declaration. Calendar-year reporting also means that quarterly totals should be reconciled to the correct calendar months.

Keep your records while you work so January does not become an exercise in reconstructing messages. Save the final statement when it arrives and compare it with the year you recorded. Ask for clarification promptly if the period, currency or activity count looks wrong. Keep both the original statement and any corrected version with the correspondence explaining the change.

What should you check before accepting your first stock batch? #

Agree what work the shop wants, which products remain its property, your fee and how handover will happen. Decide how you will record each paid task and the costs you actually bear. The earn from home page describes the AirPost arrangement. A clear first agreement gives you a useful income record and lets you assess the practical job before relying on a hoped-for annual volume.

Do not use a reporting threshold as a target for hiding work or as proof that an offer is legitimate. Judge the actual arrangement and prepare to declare the income correctly. Once your records separate stock, service fees and payments, a tax-information request is much easier to understand. You can then ask a precise question about a particular statement instead of relying on a rule intended for a different activity.