Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
In a micro-entreprise your contributions do not follow your profit. They follow your turnover — and for a second-hand dealer that changes everything.
This page works in French rules. The rates, thresholds and obligations below are for a business registered in France. The UK rules and the Belgian ones have a page of their own: these are three different systems, not three translations.
The question is not “how much do I earn”, but “what am I taxed on”.
An employee thinks in net pay. A dealer has to think in three figures at once: what they take in, what they paid for the goods, and what the tax authority treats as their income. In a micro-entreprise that third figure is not the one you expect.
Your social contributions are a percentage of the turnover you collect, not of your margin. Two dealers making the same profit therefore pay different contributions: the one who buys dear and sells dear pays more, because they take in more.
That is the opposite of Belgium, where contributions are charged on profit. It is not a different rate: it is a different basis.
For a buying-and-selling activity — that of the second-hand dealer, the antiques dealer and vintage — the régime micro-BIC comes down to three numbers.
For a dealer who buys at 40 and sells at 120, the real margin is two thirds of what they take in, while the tax authority taxes only 29% of it. The flat allowance therefore often works in your favour in this trade — which is exactly why it pays to know what you really take in, piece by piece.
A dealer in a micro-entreprise, main occupation, one tax share. They take in €60,000 over the year and paid €20,000 for goods.
| Turnover collectedwhat customers paid you | €60,000 |
| Purchases of goodswhat you paid for the pieces sold | − €20,000 |
| Fixed costspitches, van, insurance, phone | − €6,000 |
| Social contributions12.3% of 60,000, so of turnover and not of margin | − €7,380 |
| Taxable income taken29% of 60,000, after the flat 71% allowance | €17,400 |
| Income tax11% on the part above €11,600, one tax share | − €638 |
| What you keepabout €2,165 a month | €25,982 |
Brought back to the week, you need to sell for about €1,150 every week of the year to land there. If your pieces go at an average of €120, that is around ten pieces a week — and one wardrobe at €600 counts as hard as five small objects.
In a micro-entreprise your pension rights depend on the turnover you collect. A lean year does not validate all four quarters. Anyone who wants to correct that puts money aside themselves.
If you stop, your takings stop with you. Daily allowances exist, but they are worked out on an income already reduced by 71%: they are modest.
This is the real quirk of the trade. A good month of buying means you bought a lot, so your account is empty. Plan enough to live three to six months without selling a single piece.
One point often missed: if you sell through an online platform, it reports your sales to the tax authority from 30 sales or €2,000 a year — before you have registered anything. What that report means, and when you really are trading.
Registration goes through the guichet unique des entreprises. You get a SIRET number and an APE code. Have the activity cover enough ground: retail of second-hand goods, and selling at markets if you plan to hold a stall.
Unlike Belgium, where the itinerant trading permit was abolished, France keeps a carte de commerçant ambulant for anyone selling outside their home commune. You apply for it at the CFE and it lasts four years. The pitch itself is arranged with the town hall or the organiser.
This is the obligation new dealers discover too late. The registre des objets mobiliers — the livre de police — is compulsory for anyone buying second-hand objects to resell: identity of the seller, description of the object, price, date. It is kept available to the police and the gendarmerie, without delay.
What that register must contain, country by country, is set out in what belongs in your stock list. And to close a declaration period step by step : the margin VAT per period guide.
When you buy from a private seller there was no VAT on the purchase: there is nothing to reclaim. The margin scheme, set out in article 297 A of the Code général des impôts, puts VAT on your margin alone and not on the full selling price. It covers second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items and antiques bought from someone not liable for VAT.
VAT may not be shown separately on the invoice. Without a purchase document the margin falls away. More on this in what the VAT margin scheme is and what margin goods are.
In a micro-entreprise you generally start in franchise en base: no VAT charged, no VAT reclaimed. The thresholds moved recently and the subject stayed under discussion: do not trust a figure found on a forum, check the threshold in force on service-public before you invoice.
If you sell through Vinted, eBay, Etsy, Selency or Catawiki, those platforms pass your details to the tax authority beyond 30 sales or €2,000 a year. Clearing your own loft is not trading; buying to sell on is — even at a small scale.
Checked on 1 September 2026 on service-public.gouv.fr: the 12.3% rate and the absence of contributions without turnover (régime micro-social), the 71% allowance and the €203,100 ceiling (tax regime of the micro-entreprise), and the 2026 income tax bands applying to 2025 income, page updated 15 April 2026. The amounts are re-indexed every year: if something no longer matches, tell us.
This is general information based on public sources, not tax or legal advice. Always put your own situation to your accountant, to URSSAF or to the tax office.
plus tax on 29% of turnover after the flat allowance. No sale, no contribution. This is what this page works out.
plus personal income tax in four bands, and a minimum contribution due every quarter even with no sales. There is a page of its own for that.
income tax plus Class 4 National Insurance on profit, with a personal allowance. There is a page of its own for that.
A € 1,200 deduction, then 12.7 % exempt, then box 1. It has its own page.
Vintro Pro keeps your stock, your purchase register and your margin VAT, and prints your labels. Exactly the paperwork this article is about.
Free up to 10 items, with no card details and no end date.
12.3% of the turnover you actually collect on the sale of goods, in 2026. The percentage applies to what you take in, not to your profit: two dealers with the same profit but different buying prices therefore do not pay the same.
On 29% of your turnover. The tax authority applies a flat 71% allowance for the sale of goods, whatever your real margin is. That taxable income then goes through the progressive income tax bands.
No. With no turnover there are no contributions due, unless you opted for the minimum contributions. That is a fundamental difference from Belgium, where a self-employed person in their main occupation owes a minimum contribution every quarter, even with no sales.
203,100 euro excluding tax in 2026 for commercial activities selling goods. Above that you move to the régime réel, where your real costs replace the flat allowance.
On your margin, if you fall under the margin scheme set out in article 297 A of the Code général des impôts. It covers second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items and antiques bought from someone not liable for VAT. Without a purchase document the margin falls away and VAT applies to the full selling price.