TikTok Shop allows products to be sold directly in the app: the customer watches a video or live stream and buys without moving to an external shop. From a legal point of view this is ordinary distance selling, so the same rules apply as in an online shop: business registration, income tax, VAT, consumer rights and product duties. This article focuses on the formalities worth sorting out before the first orders come in.
How selling in the app works
The seller sets up an account in the seller panel, goes through identity and company verification, adds products and configures shipping and the payout account. Products can be shown in regular videos, live streams or ads, or passed to creators under the affiliate programme, who receive a commission on sales (we write about the creator side in a separate article). The platform collects payment from the customer, deducts its fees and transfers the rest to the seller.
For accounting this means two streams of documents: sales to customers and platform invoices for commissions and services. Both must be recorded separately — the payout to the account is the "net-of-deductions" amount, not revenue.
Does a business need to be registered
The platform requires details of a business entity, and the regulations usually force registration anyway. A natural person may for a while sell under unregistered business activity (działalność nierejestrowana) if revenue in no quarter exceeds PLN 10,813.50 (in 2026 that is 225% of the minimum wage) and if they have not run a business in the past 60 months. With regular sales on a platform this limit is easy to pass, and then within 7 days activity must be registered in CEIDG (Central Register and Information on Economic Activity). We describe the details in the article on unregistered business activity.
At registration it is worth, straight away:
- choosing a PKD code covering online retail and codes for any in-house production;
- choosing a form of taxation — in goods trading, ryczałt (lump-sum tax on recorded revenue) has a low rate, but does not allow the cost of goods to be deducted, so with a low margin it can be less attractive than the scale or flat tax (podatek liniowy);
- opening a separate business account into which platform payouts come.
VAT: threshold, sales to other countries, commissions
In 2026, the turnover-based VAT exemption applies up to PLN 240,000 of annual sales (where activity starts mid-year — pro rata). This matters especially on platforms: online sales of, among others, cosmetic and toilet preparations, computers, electronic products or household equipment, rule out the exemption from the first zloty, as does trading in most excise goods. Before the launch, the range must therefore be checked.
If the shop ships goods to consumers in other EU countries, after exceeding a combined EUR 10,000 (PLN 42,000) of such sales per year, VAT is charged at the customer-country rates. It is settled in Poland through the OSS procedure, without registration in each country.
A separate topic is platform invoices. If the service provider is based abroad, a Polish active VAT payer usually settles import of services. Even a seller exempt from VAT may then have to register for VAT-UE before buying the first service. This is one of the most frequently overlooked duties in selling via foreign platforms.
Sales records and the cash register
Every order must be recorded. In mail-order sales where the seller receives the full payment to a bank account and the records and payment evidence make it unambiguously clear which transaction and which customer it concerns, the cash-register exemption may be used. With bulk payouts from a platform this condition must be checked especially carefully, and the exemption also has carve-outs by product range. Business customers are issued with invoices, in 2026 as a rule in KSeF.
Consumer rights and product duties
Buyers on TikTok Shop are most often consumers, so the seller is responsible for:
- the right of withdrawal — the consumer may return goods bought at a distance within 14 days without stating a reason;
- complaints for non-conformity of goods with the contract;
- terms and pre-contract information — seller's details, product features, delivery and return costs, how to file complaints;
- product safety — labelling, instructions in Polish, manufacturer's details.
If the seller packs and ships the goods themselves, they usually need entry in the BDO register as a party placing products in packaging on the market. The entry is not required, among others, when the goods are shipped directly by the manufacturer or by a logistics firm acting on the seller's behalf.
Monthly settlement example
An entrepreneur on flat tax, an active VAT payer, sold 300 orders through TikTok Shop in a month, with a total value of PLN 24,600 gross. The platform transferred PLN 21,300 after deducting commission and fees. In the books they record:
- revenue of PLN 20,000 net and output VAT of PLN 4,600 from the sales records;
- the cost of platform commissions and fees based on the invoice, and – for a foreign service provider – also import of services in the VAT return;
- the cost of purchasing goods, packaging and shipping.
If they treated the PLN 21,300 payout as revenue, they would understate sales and VAT, and platform costs would not reach the records at all.
The most common mistakes of beginner sellers
- Selling without registration despite exceeding the quarterly limit.
- Booking platform payouts instead of the full sales value.
- No VAT-UE registration before the first service from a foreign platform.
- Copying terms from another shop without matching them to one's own range and return rules.
A full list of steps when launching online sales can be found in the article how to open an online shop.
How Good Balance can help
We help with sole proprietorship registration: we select PKD codes and the form of taxation for platform sales. Then, under simplified accounting, we settle sales, platform commissions, VAT and the OSS procedure.