You buy a phone from a private individual, refurbish it, and resell it over the counter. Should VAT apply to the whole resale price? No, and the reason fits in one sentence: a purchase from a private individual carries no deductible VAT, so taxing the full price would tax value you never added. That is exactly what article 125 bis-II of the General Tax Code corrects, by applying the tax to the difference alone between what you sell for and what you paid. Every other rule in the scheme follows from that principle.
The essentials in five points
- The taxable base is the difference between the selling price and the purchase price. That difference is computed all taxes included, not net of tax.
- Two methods are permitted. Operation by operation, item by item, or by globalisation over the month or the quarter.
- The scheme depends on where the goods came from. It covers goods bought from non-assujettis operating outside the scope of VAT, or from another second-hand dealer himself taxed on the margin.
- No VAT is deducted on the purchase. That is the logical counterpart of the scheme, and it is not negotiable.
- The resale invoice shows no VAT at all. A VAT-registered customer therefore has nothing to deduct from you, and that belongs in the price discussion.
1. Why the scheme exists at all
VAT is a tax on value added: each participant collects tax on the price he sells at and deducts the tax he bore on his own purchases. The mechanism therefore assumes there is an upstream tax available to deduct.
But a private individual selling you his car, his old furniture or his phone invoices no VAT at all: he is not registered, and he acts outside the scope of the tax. You bring the goods into stock with no deduction right whatsoever. If the resale were taxed on the full price, the tax would also hit the value the goods already carried before reaching you, value you did not create and which has often already borne VAT when the item was first bought new.
The margin scheme resolves precisely that. It gives up the upstream deduction and, in exchange, taxes only the gap you created between the purchase and the sale. Hold on to that reasoning: every rule below is merely a practical consequence of it.
2. The base: a difference, computed all taxes included
Article 125 bis-II sets the taxable base at the difference between the selling price and the purchase price. One technical detail matters here more than anything else: that difference is computed all taxes included, which means the margin you obtain itself contains the tax, and the amount must then be extracted from it at the applicable rate.
| What changes | Ordinary regime | Margin scheme |
|---|---|---|
| The taxable base | The selling price of the goods | The difference between the selling price and the purchase price |
| How it is computed | On a price net of tax | On a difference including all taxes |
| VAT on the purchase | Deducted if shown on the invoice | No deduction possible |
| The resale invoice | Shows the VAT collected | Shows no VAT at all |
| The registered customer | Deducts the tax you invoice him | Has no tax to deduct |
Do not look for a special rate attached to second-hand goods: the rate applicable to the goods concerned is the one that applies to the margin. Have your accountant confirm that rate for your product category before you fix your selling prices, because it changes the net margin you actually keep.
3. Operation by operation, or globalisation
The text offers two ways of determining the base, and the choice is not cosmetic: it changes the workload, the level of detail demanded of your bookkeeping, and the result itself over any given period.
- Operation by operation: You compute the difference on each item sold, taken individually. The method assumes you can tie every resold item to its exact purchase price, which means unit-level tracking of your second-hand stock.
- Globalisation: Each month or each quarter, you take total sales of second-hand goods minus total purchases of second-hand goods over the same period. The method suits high volumes of small items, where item-by-item tracking would be unrealistic.
- What separates them in practice: Globalisation offsets the operations of one period against each other, which the individual calculation does not. In a month where you buy a lot and sell little, the two methods do not give the same base.
- What both of them require: A record of the purchase price of every item taken in, with the seller’s identity and the date. Without that document the difference cannot be justified and the base can be challenged.
Choose the method your organisation can genuinely maintain, not the one that looks most favourable in a single month. A method kept properly is worth more than a theoretically optimal one that nobody documents.
The scheme depends on where the goods came from, not on their condition
This is the most expensive mistake, and it recurs because it sounds logical: goods do not enter the margin scheme because they are second-hand, but because they were bought without deductible VAT. Used equipment you buy from a VAT-registered business, with VAT on the invoice, follows the ordinary regime: you deduct that tax and you tax the full selling price. Treating it on the margin amounts to under-declaring the base, with the reassessment and penalties that come with it.
4. The conditions to respect, and what the scheme costs
The scheme is not a free choice open to every reseller: it is reserved for precise situations, and it comes with a bookkeeping obligation on which everything else depends.
- The goods must have been acquired from a non-assujetti acting outside the scope of VAT, typically a private individual.
- Or from another second-hand goods dealer who is himself taxed under the margin scheme.
- Goods bought from a VAT-registered supplier, with VAT shown on the invoice, fall outside this scheme entirely: they simply follow the ordinary regime.
- Dealers taxed under the margin scheme must keep separate accounting, according to the method used.
- No VAT is deducted in respect of the purchase of goods resold under this scheme.
- No VAT appears on the resale invoice handed to the customer.
Separate accounting is not decorative paperwork. It is what lets you show, purchase by purchase, that the goods sold really did fall within the scheme, and it is the first document an audit will ask for. If your purchases from private individuals and your purchases from registered suppliers sit mixed in the same accounts, you have nothing left to produce.
The last line has a direct commercial effect you have to own. A registered business customer recovers no tax on what you sell him, whereas he would recover it from a seller under the ordinary regime. At the same displayed price your offer therefore costs him more: say so before he discovers it while hunting for the VAT line on the invoice.
Mistakes to avoid
- Applying the margin to goods bought with VAT from a registered supplier.
- Computing the difference net of tax, when the text takes it all taxes included.
- Mixing margin-scheme purchases and ordinary-regime purchases in one and the same account.
- Globalising over the period without being able to justify each purchase price.
- Showing a VAT line on a resale invoice that falls under the scheme.
- Promising a registered customer deductible VAT that this scheme does not allow.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly does VAT apply to under this scheme?
To the difference between the selling price and the purchase price of the goods, not to the selling price. Article 125 bis-II states that this difference is computed all taxes included, the tax then being extracted from the margin at the rate applicable to the goods concerned.
Can I freely choose between the two methods?
The text allows both the operation-by-operation calculation and the monthly or quarterly globalisation. In either case the accounting must be kept separately and according to the method used, which means sticking to it rather than switching to whichever suits the month.
Do goods bought from a company qualify for the scheme?
Only if the seller is a non-assujetti acting outside the scope of VAT, or another second-hand goods dealer himself taxed on the margin. A registered supplier who invoices you VAT takes you out of the scheme: you deduct that tax and the resale follows the ordinary regime.
Can my business customer deduct the VAT on what he buys from me?
No. No VAT appears on a resale invoice issued under this scheme, so he has no tax to deduct. It is a real commercial issue in front of a registered buyer, and it is better announced while negotiating the price than when handing over the invoice.
What to take away
Start by sorting your stock intake by origin, before any talk of calculation: goods from private individuals on one side, purchases from registered suppliers on the other. Then open the separate accounting the scheme requires, choose between operation-by-operation and globalisation according to what your stock tracking can genuinely sustain, and have your accountant confirm the rate applicable to your category of goods before you set your prices.
Sources
The figures and rules quoted above come from these pages, read on the date given in the article.
- Moroccan Tax Administration, 2026 General Tax Code
- Ministry of Economy and Finance, General Code of Accounting Standardisation, read 1 September 2026
The purchase price kept item by item
BelloPOS records your purchases and sales item by item on the Go licence, which leaves you the trace of purchase price and resale price this calculation depends on, with no connection to any portal.
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