Roman coins on Ebay

[Ponsnumismatik]

Dear Roman coins collectors,

My name is Vladimir and I come from Croatia. I have just recently moved to Germany. I apologize for writting to you in English, but my German is not good enough yet.
I collect Roman Imperial and Roman Provincial coins. I am especially interested in Crisis of the Third Century, House of Constantine and Valentinian dynasty. I have been collecting Roman coins for the past 7 years. Some of my collection comes from my grandfather and the rest was bought by me.
I usually buy coins from Ebay and Vcoins and sometimes from auction houses and metal detectorist directly. I decided to sell a part of my collection which I am no longer interested in.
Therefore I am kindly asking you if you could help me regarding selling Roman coins on Ebay?
What are German legal regulations related to selling Roman coins on Ebay?

Thank you in advance for your response!

Best regards,
Ponsnumismatik

[areich]

There are no relevant legal regulations, except if you sell too much (it is not defined how much is too much) you may be suspected of selling commercially and have to tax your gains.

[Ponsnumismatik]

Thank you areich for your response!
Are you the the areich from Forvm Ancient Coins?
Could you be a little bit more specific about the regulations? In particular, for some of my coins I do have an invoice (invoice from where I bought the coin), but for some i do not have it. Do you must have an invoice for coins that you sell on Ebay?
I want to avoid breaking any law and any potential problems. The only reason why I want to sell is so that I can finance my future buyings.

[Yuliano]

Dear Sir,

according to German tax-law regulations, you can sell as a private individuum as much coins as you want without paying
any tax if the coins are longer than 365 days in your possession. If you are owning the item for less than this time span
and your profit from your speculative transactions in one year exceeds 440 EUR in total, then you are obliged to
mention this in your income tax declaration.

http://www.frag-einen-anwalt.de/forum_t ... _id=218136


Greetings,

Yuliano

[areich]

That's one lawyer's opinion of what would most likely happen. I agree that this is probably correct but you won't know until it happens to you. Proving that you have owned any particular coin for more than one year might not be easy.

[Ponsnumismatik]

I did not expect to hear that. 440 € is not a lot when we refer to ancient coins.
Is everyone with an income in Germany obligated to file an income tax statement?
Are there tax advisors here who can help you with filling in the statement?
In your opinion, is it than maybe better and easier to take the coins to an auction house and have them sell it for me?

[Yuliano]

The German tax-law regulations are quite complicated and difficult to understand even for experts. In case of occasional sales
via Ebay, for sure it is no problem and you just have to observe the one-year speculation period. However, where as you planning
to sell coins regularly in larger volumes than 17500 EUR, it might become complicated.

https://www.test.de/Ebay-Amazon-und-Co- ... 4589185-0/

If you hand out your coins to an auction house one year in advance, you do not have to take care for Geman tax-law regulations
and you are avoiding difficulties from the outset. In this case, you are obliged to file an income tax statement since you must
do this in general; however, you are not obliged to mention your coin sales.

BTW, I would particularly advice against selling any nice coin via ebay since this is a notorious playground for fraudsters and bargain
hunters. For nice and genuine coins, you will not achieve the price they deserve. It is very much better to contact an
auction house. And believe it or not! The better they are, the less consignment fee you have to pay. Less than ten percent
are entirely possible, so don't be shy.

[justus]

BTW, I would particularly advice against selling any nice coin via ebay since this is a notorious playground for fraudsters and bargain
hunters. For nice and genuine coins, you will not achieve the price they deserve. It is very much better to contact an
auction house. And believe it or not! The better they are, the less consignment fee you have to pay. Less than ten percent
are entirely possible, so don't be shy.

Das kann man so oder so sehen. Ebay und andere Verkaufsplattformen haben schon ihren Sinn, sonst würden sie ja nicht so erfolgreich sein oder ?! Und ... schön dass du Werbung für Auktionshäuser machst, aber ich denke dass sie nur im Falle von hochpreisigen Stücken in Anspruch genommen werden sollten. Ansonsten ziehe ich die Bucht vor, schon weil man dort immer mal wieder ein "Schnäppchen" machen kann.

[Yuliano]

aber ich denke dass sie nur im Falle von hochpreisigen Stücken in Anspruch genommen werden sollten. Ansonsten ziehe ich die Bucht vor, schon weil man dort immer mal wieder ein "Schnäppchen" machen kann.

I support this, you represent precisely what I mentioned above. Since ebay is a notorious playground for
fraudsters and bargain hunters, nice coins would not fetch the price they deserve if they were sold via ebay.

[areich]

But to sell a coin at an auction it has to have a certain minimum value. Ebay is good for selling mid-price coins (<80-100€). Don't expect to be able to make a profit on most of the coins you sell but if you need to sell some, it is a good and fast way to sell. I wouldn't worry too much if you're not selling hundreds of coins but saying it is absolutely without risk is irresponsible. There are no clear rulings. The linked article says "Zum steuer­pflichtigen Händler werden Sie erst, wenn Sie dauer­haft ertragreiche Geschäfte machen oder Ware kaufen, um sie mit Gewinn wieder zu verkaufen." but there have been different rulings where courts said that it didn't matter whether you made or even wanted to make a profit. But if you're just a collector selling a couple of coins, I wouldn't worry too much.