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Depop taxes: what the 1099-K shows and what to report
Depop taxes are on your profit, not your sales. The 1099-K form Depop files shows your total sales before any costs come off, so it's a bigger number than what you made. Something from your own closet that sold for less than you paid isn't taxed, but you still enter it on your return so the form's number cancels out.
Picture a seller, made up for this page, who buys thrifted jeans and jackets and resells them on Depop. Her 1099-K arrives, and Box 1a, the box for gross payments, says $6,000. That's more than she remembers keeping, and the form isn't wrong: it counts every dollar buyers paid, before a single cost comes off. Follow her through this page and you'll see how $6,000 becomes the smaller number the tax is about. Every dollar figure in the examples is made up unless the page says it's Depop's.
A form can list a sale that earned you nothing. An item bought for $1,600 and sold for $1,000 still goes on the 1099-K as $1,000, with no taxable income to report (Depop's own example).
Do you have to pay taxes on Depop sales?
Yes, on the profit, and a form that never arrives doesn't change that: you must report the income even without a Form 1099-K. What gets taxed depends on what you sold.
| Your situation | Tax result | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Your own item, sold for less than you paid | No tax; the loss can't be deducted | Entry space at the top of Schedule 1, or Form 8949 with code L |
| Your own item, sold for more than you paid | The gain is taxable | Form 8949 and Schedule D, the forms for gains |
| Bought to resell, such as thrifted finds | The profit is taxable income | Schedule C, the business-profit form, if you run it as a business; the hobby-or-business test decides |
A personal item, in tax terms, is something you owned for personal use. One Depop shop can hold both kinds: the coat from your own closet is personal, while the jeans you found at a thrift store to flip were bought to resell. Not sure if your selling is a hobby or a business? The hobby-or-business test lists the factors the IRS weighs.
Does Depop send a 1099-K, and how do you get it?
Depop sends a Form 1099-K when your sales meet a federal or state reporting threshold, because the law requires it. Stripe, the company behind Depop Payments, delivers it. The federal threshold has changed more than once, so the 1099-K threshold, year by year is the place to check today's version. A marketplace can also send a form for lower amounts.
Depop and Stripe describe the same three steps for the 2025 forms. Treat them as last season's pattern, and look for this year's dates on those two pages.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Starting in November | Stripe emails instructions to set up a Stripe Express account, which you need to download the form. |
| Before December 31 | Review the tax details on file in Stripe Express, and decide on paper or e-delivery. |
| By January 31 | The form is in Stripe Express, or mailed if you asked for paper. Depop files it with the IRS and relevant states. |
Five things trip sellers up here:
- The form appears only after Depop files it. If it's missing, ask Depop support whether it has filed. Stripe can't resend Depop forms.
- Check your delivery setting. The two help pages disagree on the default. Depop's page says to switch on postal delivery by December 31 to be sure of paper, while Stripe's says the form is mailed to your address on file if you haven't chosen e-delivery by then. Open Stripe Express and see which is set.
- Each shop gets its own 1099-K, even when shops share one taxpayer ID, and Depop can't combine them at this time.
- A form for 2024 but none for 2025? The likely reason is that the reporting threshold changed back for 2025.
- Treat the Stripe email as a prompt to go look, not as proof. A fake can copy its subject line, which Depop and Stripe both describe. Open Depop's help article or Stripe's guide yourself and sign in to Stripe Express from there, not from the email's link.
What is in the number on Depop's 1099-K?
Box 1a is every sale payment you received through Depop Payments in the calendar year, before anything comes off, which is why it's bigger than what you kept. Five things sit inside it: sales, shipping, refunds, the fees you paid (such as the payment processing fee), and the fees your buyers paid, including Depop's Marketplace Fee. Refunded orders don't shrink the total.
Several of those aren't income at all. Fees, refunds and shipping aren't taxable income, and you can deduct them from the gross. Why a 1099-K is higher than your income walks through that gap.
How do you work out your Depop profit?
Start by matching Box 1a to your own sales records and the Transactions page in Stripe Express. If they disagree, contact Depop support. Then take off refunds, fees and shipping, and what you paid for the items that sold. What's left is profit.
Here is our made-up seller's year, with the line of Schedule C that each step lands on if she runs the shop as a business. Schedule C is the form where a business of one figures its profit. Her buyers also paid $240 in fees, which Depop counts inside Box 1a.
| Step | Amount | Schedule C line (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Box 1a on Depop's 1099-K | $6,000 | Line 1, gross receipts |
| Minus refunds to buyers | $300 | Line 2, returns and allowances |
| Minus what she paid for the items that sold | $1,900 | Line 4, from Part III |
| Gross profit | $3,800 | Line 5 |
| Minus fees she paid | $180 | Line 10, commissions and fees |
| Minus postage she paid | $520 | Line 18, which the instructions say includes postage |
| Profit with her buyers' $240 in fees left in | $3,100 | Line 31, net profit |
| Profit with those $240 in fees taken off too | $2,860 | Line 31, net profit |
The check: 6,000 − 300 − 1,900 = 3,800, then 3,800 − 180 − 520 = 3,100, and 3,100 − 240 = 2,860.
Why two answers? Depop puts the fees buyers paid inside Box 1a, and fees come off the gross, so leaving them in would overstate her profit by $240. What no source says is which Schedule C line a fee you never paid goes on. That's the one question to put to a preparer. Rule of thumb: until you have an answer, plan around the higher figure, $3,100. Owing less than you planned is a better surprise than owing more. Schedule C for resellers covers the rest.
Back to her opening number: $6,000 on the form, and somewhere between $2,860 and $3,100 of profit, before any other expenses. The form was only ever a total of what buyers paid.
How do you report a Depop sale at a loss?
A loss here means something from your own closet sold for less than you paid. It isn't taxable, but the form still reported that money to the IRS, so you cancel that number out. There are two ways to do it, and both are for personal items, not for things you bought to resell.
Take a second made-up seller whose shop holds both kinds. Here are three of her sales, with fees left out so the arithmetic stays visible:
| Sale | Result | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Coat from her own closet | Sold for $45, paid $80: a $35 loss | Not taxable. Zero it out on Schedule 1 or Form 8949. |
| Jacket from her own closet | Sold for $60, paid $30: a $30 gain | Taxable. Form 8949 and Schedule D. |
| Thrifted jeans, bought to resell | Sold for $55, paid $8: a $47 profit | Schedule C, if she runs it as a business. |
The check: 45 − 80 = −35, 60 − 30 = 30 and 55 − 8 = 47. The $35 loss doesn't reduce the $30 gain, because a loss can't offset a gain, so sort the sales before you enter anything.
Take the coat. Say the form lists it at $45. You enter $45, the amount the form reported, and not the $35 loss. The IRS calls that an offsetting entry: the $45 the form added to your income and the $45 you enter cancel to zero, so the coat adds nothing to your tax. Use the form's own figure, which can be higher than the item's price because it includes shipping and buyer fees.
- Match and sort the salesCheck each sale on the form against your records and what you paid. Then make three piles: own items at a loss, own items at a gain, and things bought to resell. Losses and gains get reported separately.
- Losses, option 1: the Schedule 1 entry spaceAbove Part I of the 2025 Schedule 1 (Form 1040), enter the amount the form reported for those sales: $45 for the coat, not $35.
- Losses, option 2: Form 8949 with code LOn Form 8949, put what you sold it for in column (d), what you paid in column (e) and code L in column (f). Then put the adjustment that brings column (h) to zero in column (g). The Instructions for Form 8949 (2025) walk through each column.
- Gains: Form 8949 and Schedule DThe gain is what you received minus what you paid. For the jacket that's $60 minus $30, or $30, taxable.
- Several forms: one combined entryGot more than one 1099-K? Add the amounts together and use the one entry space (IRS, Form 1099-K FAQs, Q6).
Older guides send you to Schedule 1 lines 8z and 24z. Those describe 2022 and 2023; from tax years beginning in 2024, the entry space at the top is the place.
What if you're a teen, or the parent of a Depop seller?
A teen who sold on Depop and received a 1099-K may need to file their own return. A parent can work through it in three steps.
- Check whose name and taxpayer ID (a Social Security number or EIN) sit in Stripe Express. It should match the person who sold.
- Sort the teen's sales with the steps above, using the form together with the teen's other records.
- Run the IRS's free Do I need to file a tax return? interview to see whether a federal return is required.
What should you do this week with your Depop taxes?
Today, open Stripe Express and check the name, address and taxpayer ID on file. Depop set December 31 as the cutoff for the 2025 forms, so look for this year's date.
Then start the records. Keep a purchase log with what you paid and when, your own note of each sale with its refund, fee and shipping details, and every 1099-K or corrected form with your messages to Depop support. Good records support what you report, and if a form is wrong, ask for a corrected one and file even if it hasn't come.
Do I have to pay taxes if I sell on Depop?
How do I get my 1099 from Depop?
Do I have to report Depop income if I didn't get a 1099-K?
Does a 1099-K mean I owe taxes on that amount?
Why is the tax on Depop so high?
You don't need to finish this in one sitting. This week, start two columns: what each sale brought in and what you paid, filled in from your own records. Depop files the form with the IRS, and your return's job is only to explain what's behind that total. A sorted list is also what you'd hand a preparer.
Disclosure We build FlowLister and publish Reseller Taxes. FlowLister writes eBay listings from item photos, with a price taken from sold listings, and for a reseller that listing becomes part of the record of what sold. It's AI, so it misses things. It doesn't prepare taxes or keep books, and nothing on this site is tax advice.
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