“I am an F-1 student in the US and sold over $1,500 of my used personal clothes on Depop last year. I didn't make a profit overall. If Depop sends me a 1099-K, how do I report this to show I'm not making a profit, and will selling these personal items violate my F-1 status?”
A Form 1099-K reports payments; it does not establish that you made a profit or worked without authorization. The important checks are each item's purchase price and whether you were clearing out your own wardrobe rather than running a resale business.
Your tax-filing route depends on your 2025 tax residency and whether any individual sale made a gain; the separate F-1 question depends on whether you were disposing of belongings or working in a resale business.
If you qualified as a nonresident student in 2025, each clothing item sold for no more than you paid, you had no other taxable income, and you were not conducting a business, the F-1 student exception means you do **not** have to file Form 1040-NR merely to account for a Form 1099-K. If you excluded your student days from the tax-residency count, you still file ; when no return is required, mail it separately to the IRS in Austin. [2025 Form 1040-NR instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040nr); [2025 Form 8843](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf)
If you otherwise need to file, attach **2025 Schedule 1** to Form 1040-NR if you are a tax nonresident, or to Form 1040 if you are a tax resident. Put the Form 1099-K proceeds attributable to **items sold at a loss** in Schedule 1’s special box at the top—not on line 8z as other income, and not as a deductible loss. Handle any item sold above its purchase price separately; a tax nonresident’s taxable-gain rules differ from a resident’s. [2025 Schedule 1](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s1.pdf); [IRS Form 1099-K FAQs](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/form-1099-k-faqs-common-situations); [2025 Form 1040-NR instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040nr)
A loss or a Form 1099-K does not make business work permissible in F-1 status. Federal rules bar unauthorized employment; USCIS describes working for your own business during an **initial OPT period** only subject to OPT rules, including work directly related to your major. Ordinary clothing resale is not automatically covered by that permission. [8 CFR 214.1(e)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-214/subpart-A/section-214.1); [USCIS entrepreneur guidance](https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/entrepreneur-employment-pathways/nonimmigrant-or-parole-pathways-for-entrepreneur-employment-in-the-united-states)
An information form reports payments, not a finding that you earned a profit or were authorized to work.
These steps separate your actual gains, your filing obligation, and the F-1 work question.
Start with your 2025 sales
Reconcile the Depop payments item by item
For each piece of clothing, compare what you received with what you originally paid; identify items sold at a loss separately from items sold at a gain. Preserve the transaction and purchase records rather than treating the Form 1099-K total as profit. [IRS Form 1099-K guidance](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/what-to-do-with-form-1099-k)
Requirements
Before relying on the no-income exception
Separate wardrobe clear-out from business activity
If these were your own used clothes, treat the sales as personal-item disposals for the tax comparison. Do not assume the same treatment for stock bought to resell or an ongoing shop: a tax loss is not employment authorization, and a nonresident conducting a U.S. business may have a Form 1040-NR filing obligation even without income. [IRS Form 1099-K guidance](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/what-to-do-with-form-1099-k); [2025 Form 1040-NR instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040nr); [8 CFR 214.1(e)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-214/subpart-A/section-214.1)
Requirements
Choose the correct form
Identify your 2025 tax residency and return
If you still qualified to exclude student presence days and were a tax nonresident, the relevant return is Form 1040-NR; an eligible nonresident F-1 student with no income taxable under the specified rule need not file it solely because of loss-making personal sales. If you were a tax resident instead, the return is Form 1040 if otherwise required. The student-day exclusion generally ends after five calendar years unless its regulatory exception is established. [2025 Form 1040-NR instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040nr); [26 CFR 301.7701(b)-3](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/part-301/section-301.7701(b)-3); [IRS Publication 519](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p519)
Requirements
If a federal income-tax return is required
Enter loss-making sales if you file a 2025 return
Attach [2025 Schedule 1](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s1.pdf) to Form 1040 or Form 1040-NR and enter the Form 1099-K amount for personal items sold at a loss in the special entry space **above Part I**. Do not claim the excess of purchase price over sale price as a deduction or place any gain-making sale in that loss box. The ordinary 2025 Form 1040 deadline was April 15, 2026; Form 1040-NR was due April 15 with employee wages subject to U.S. withholding, or June 15 without them. If you missed an applicable deadline, file promptly. [IRS Form 1099-K FAQs](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/form-1099-k-faqs-common-situations); [2025 Form 1040-NR instructions](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040nr)
Requirements
With your return, or separately
File Form 8843 if you claimed the student-day exclusion
Complete Parts I and III of [2025 Form 8843](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf). Attach it if you file Form 1040-NR; if you have no 2025 return to file, mail it to Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Austin, TX 73301-0215. A stand-alone Form 8843 was due by the applicable Form 1040-NR deadline; if yours is overdue, send it promptly. [2025 Form 8843](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf)
Requirements
You are not the first to go through this. Here is how it went for others who asked the same thing.
u/TopPossession9118r/DepopAug 16, 2026
This answer draws on the IRS’s 2025 forms and instructions, federal student and employment regulations, and USCIS guidance.
IRS Form 1099-K FAQs
The marketplace reporting threshold is not $1,500, and a form can arrive below the federal threshold.
General information FAQ
The federal reporting threshold of over $20,000 in payments and more than 200 transactions is a reporting requirement for TPSOs, but a TPSO may still send a Form 1099-K for payments for goods or services for amounts lower than the thresholds.
IRS Form 1099-K guidance
A personal-item loss is not deductible, but its reported proceeds need not become taxable income.
Personal items sold at a loss
A loss on the sale of a personal item can't be deducted from your taxes. But you can zero out the reported gross income so you don't pay taxes on it.
IRS Form 1099-K guidance
An overall loss does not permit you to ignore an item sold at a gain.
If you sold personal items
If you sold a mix of personal items at a loss and a gain, report losses and gains separately.
IRS Form 1099-K guidance
Purchase price and selling price must be compared item by item.
Personal items sold at a gain
The profit is the difference between the amount you received for selling the item and the amount you originally paid for the item.
IRS Form 1099-K FAQs
The top-of-Schedule-1 method, rather than an older line-8z/24z example, applies to 2025.
Common situations FAQ, Q7
For tax years beginning in 2024, report the combined Form 1099-K amounts in the entry space at top of Schedule 1 (Form 1040).
2025 Schedule 1 (Form 1040)
The 2025 Schedule 1 can also be attached to a nonresident's Form 1040-NR.
Heading
Attach to Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR.
2025 Instructions for Form 1040-NR
An eligible nonresident F-1 student with no specified taxable income need not file Form 1040-NR just to reconcile loss-making sales.
Exceptions to Form 1040-NR filing
You were a nonresident alien student, teacher, or trainee who was temporarily present in the United States under an ‘F’, ‘J’, ‘M’, or ‘Q’ visa, and you have no income that is subject to tax under section 871 (that is, the income items listed on page 1 of Form 1040-NR, lines 1a through 1h, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 7a, and 8, and Schedule NEC (Form 1040-NR), lines 1 through 12).
2025 Instructions for Form 1040-NR
The no-income filing exception must not be used to dismiss an actual U.S. business.
Table A, condition 1
You must file even if:
2025 Form 8843
A student claiming exclusion of U.S. presence days completes the student portions of Form 8843.
Part III, student instructions
If you qualify to exclude days of presence as a student, complete Parts I and III of Form 8843.
2025 Form 8843
When no 2025 return is required, Form 8843 goes separately to the specified IRS address.
When and Where To File
If you don’t have to file a 2025 tax return, mail Form 8843 to the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Austin, TX 73301-0215 by the due date (including extensions) for filing Form 1040-NR.
26 CFR 301.7701(b)-3
F-1 immigration status alone does not guarantee nonresident tax treatment indefinitely.
(b)(7)(iii)
An individual will not be able to exclude days of presence as a student if the individual has been exempt as a teacher, trainee, or student for any part of more than five calendar years, unless it is established to the satisfaction of the district director that the individual does not intend to reside permanently in the United States and has substantially complied with the requirements of the student visa providing for the individual's temporary presence in the United States.
2025 Instructions for Form 1040-NR
The ordinary 2025 nonresident deadline without wages subject to withholding was June 15, 2026.
When To File
A return for the 2025 calendar year is due by June 15, 2026.
2025 Instructions for Form 1040
The ordinary 2025 resident-return deadline was April 15, 2026.
When To File
File Form 1040 or 1040-SR by April 15, 2026.
8 CFR 274a.1(h)
Federal regulations define employment by the work performed, not by whether a payment platform issues a tax form.
(h)
The term employment means any service or labor performed by an employee for an employer within the United States, including service or labor performed on a vessel or aircraft that has arrived in the United States and has been inspected, or otherwise included within the provisions of the Anti-Reflagging Act codified at 46 U.S.C. 8704, but not including duties performed by nonimmigrant crewmen defined in sections 101 (a)(10) and (a)(15)(D) of the Act.
8 CFR 214.1(e)
Unauthorized employment can violate nonimmigrant status, regardless of a tax loss.
(e)(2)
Any unauthorized employment by a nonimmigrant constitutes a failure to maintain status within the meaning of section 241(a)(1)(C)(i) of the Act.
USCIS Entrepreneur Employment Pathways
The possibility of working for one's own business belongs to a specific authorized OPT route, not to every F-1 student's online sales.
F-1 student pathway
You may start, own, and work for your own business during your initial period of OPT.
USCIS Entrepreneur Employment Pathways
Even authorized OPT does not cover unrelated business work.
F-1 student pathway
While on F-1 OPT, the work you perform must directly relate to your major area of study.
These are the cited official rules for the 2025 tax year and immigration rules available as of October 9, 2026; rules can change.
This is general information about official tax and immigration processes, not legal advice; SettleKit is not a law firm.
We research the hard parts of settling in the US and write articles you will not find anywhere else. Subscribe to get each new article by email.
