Guide

Reseller taxes: the numbers you’ll need

If you flip for profit, tax time comes down to a handful of totals. This guide explains each one in plain English. It’s general information, not tax advice; rules depend on your situation and country, so check with a tax professional.

1. Gross receipts

Everything buyers paid you for items, usually including shipping they paid. Marketplaces may send you a 1099-K, and your records help you reconcile it with what you actually sold.

2. Cost of goods sold (COGS)

What you paid for the items you sold this year. A common way to show it (for US sellers, Schedule C Part III) is: inventory at the start of the year + purchases − inventory at the end of the year. Items you kept for yourself or gave away come out of that total too.

This is why logging cost and purchase date for every item matters, including the pieces from a lot or bin.

3. Costs of selling

Platform fees, shipping labels you paid, and packaging. These add up fast and are easy to lose track of without per-sale records.

4. Other business expenses

Supplies, storage bins, shipping materials, software, a share of your phone bill. Keep receipts.

5. Mileage

Trips to thrift stores, estate sales and the post office for your business can count. The IRS publishes a standard business rate per mile. For 2026 it’s 72.5 cents (January 1 to June 30) and 76 cents (July 1 to December 31), according to irs.gov.

Keep records as you go

Reconstructing a year of flips from payout emails in March is painful. Logging each item when you buy it and each sale when it happens takes seconds and makes the year-end totals automatic.

Haulfolio isn’t a tax service and doesn’t give tax advice. Figures are planning summaries built from what you enter.