Is it legal to sell items on Instagram and make money?
Hey quick question, if I sell some stuff on Instagram for a hobby and make money, is it illegal?
Lawline svarar
Hello!
Thank you for coming to Lawline with your question.
You need to follow the terms and conditions
It is not, in itself, illegal to sell things through Instagram and make money off of it. There is however a possibility that Instagram's user agreement says something different, or has special rules you need to follow, so reading the app's terms and conditions can hopefully answer your question when it comes to Instagram directly.
It may depend on what you're selling
It is also worth noting that not everything is legal to sell. This mostly applies to things that are somehow connected to copyrighted material, such as recreations of existing franchises, images and the like. If you want to sell a cross stitch of a bird that you made, that is completely fine for example. If you instead want to sell shirts with Disney characters printed on them, that likely constitutes copyright infringement.
About paying taxes when earning money from a hobby
You also have to pay taxes accordingly (10 kap 1 § 3 p. inkomstskattelagen). If your hobby crosses the line into something more professional rather than just a hobby (for example if you start working less on other jobs because of the store or if you are pursuing the hobby for income purposes rather than because it is your hobby) you will have to pay your income taxes from the selling as a business rather than a service (13 kap 1 § inkomstskattelagen).
I hope this answered your question!
Kindly,
