Book margin-scheme goods

If you buy goods from private individuals and resell them, for example second-hand goods, art or antiques, you often pay VAT only on the margin between the selling price and the purchase price. bessa Kassa currently has no dedicated function for the margin scheme. In Austria you can already book such goods correctly with the tools available today: through a dedicated article group with the 0 % VAT rate. This guide shows the setup, the limits of this interim solution and what is different in Germany and Croatia.

This guide describes the setup in bessa and is not tax advice. Please check with your tax advisor whether and how the margin scheme applies to your business. You will find the legal basis at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the German Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt).

The principle: a dedicated article group

Under the margin scheme, the VAT is included in the selling price but is not shown separately. Its amount depends on the purchase price of the individual item, which the Sales Point does not know. The Sales Point therefore records the full selling price, and your accountant later calculates the VAT from the purchase records.

A dedicated article group for margin-scheme goods gives you:

The right VAT rate: The group gets the VAT rate Umsatzsteuer 0%, and all its articles inherit it.
Separate revenue: Reports and exports show margin-scheme revenue separately from your regularly taxed revenue.
A dedicated revenue account: You can store a separate account number for the accounting export on the group.

Does this work with fiscalisation in Austria? Yes. An amount at 0 % goes into the RKSV total "Betrag-Satz-Null". According to the BMF decree on the obligation to use electronic cash register systems, this is exactly where margin-scheme amounts belong, at the full selling price.

Step 1: Create the article group

In bessa Manager, open the article groups and create a new group.
Give it a clear name, e.g. "Second-hand goods – margin scheme".
Select Umsatzsteuer 0% as the tax rate. It applies to in-house and takeaway sales alike.
If needed, enter an account number for the accounting export, see Export Data.
Save the group.

Every Austrian and German account comes with the VAT rate Umsatzsteuer 0% out of the box, see Tax Types. You cannot create your own VAT rates in bessa Manager.

You are responsible for the correct VAT rate. An article always inherits the VAT rate of its article group. Only create margin-scheme goods in this group, and never regularly taxed goods. If you sell some goods under the margin scheme and others not, e.g. new goods and bought-in goods, create a separate group for each.

Step 2: Create articles and set the price

Create the articles in the new group, see Articles. The price is always the full selling price your customer pays.

Goods with the same price, e.g. books at €5: Store the price on the article.
Single items with individual prices: Create a general article, e.g. "Bought-in goods", and activate Free price. The Sales Point then asks for the price when you book it.
Name the item: With Free text activated, the Sales Point asks for the name when you book it, e.g. "Ladies' watch, gold". The name is printed on the invoice.

Step 3: Put the mandatory note on the receipt

Invoices for margin-scheme goods must carry a note on the margin scheme (Section 24 (7) of the Austrian VAT Act). bessa Kassa has no dedicated receipt line for it. Where you place the note depends on whether your entire business sells under the margin scheme or only some articles.

If you sell only margin-scheme goods, e.g. as a pure second-hand shop, enter the note as the invoice footer. It then appears on every receipt.

In bessa Manager, open Basic data → Company, or the location if only one location is affected. The location's invoice footer takes precedence over the company's.
Under Invoice footer, enter the note, e.g.: "Differenzbesteuerung gem. § 24 UStG – USt im Preis enthalten, nicht gesondert ausweisbar"
Save.

The Sales Point picks up the new invoice footer only after the next Sales Point closing.

Only some articles under the margin scheme: note in the article name

If you also sell regularly taxed goods, the note does not belong on every receipt. Include it in the article name instead, e.g.:

"Damenuhr – differenzbesteuert"
"Ankaufware – differenzbesteuert"

The name appears on the item line of the invoice, so your customer can see which item falls under the margin scheme. If you use Free text, the input field is pre-filled with the article name: add the name of the item and keep the note.

What this solution cannot do today

The dedicated article group is an interim solution. It does not cover these points:

0 % line on the receipt: The tax table on the receipt shows a "0 %" line for the goods, with net equal to gross. According to the BMF decree, a margin-scheme amount should not appear as 0 % revenue on the receipt. This cannot be changed today.
No VAT on the margin: The Sales Point does not calculate the VAT on the margin. Your accountant does that.
No purchase price per item: You do not record the purchase price of an individual item in the Sales Point, but in your buy-in records.

Step 4: Records for your accountant

Under the margin scheme, the selling price and the purchase price of every item must be traceable (Section 24 (11) of the Austrian VAT Act). The Sales Point provides the sales side, your purchase receipts the purchase side.

Keep purchase receipts: Record the purchase price of every item you buy in and keep the receipts.
Analyse revenue: The report type Article groups under Reports shows the group's revenue for any period. You will find individual sales under Invoices.
Export: With an account number stored, the revenue lands on its own revenue account in the accounting export, see Export Data.

Your accountant determines the tax base and the VAT from the selling and purchase prices.

Germany: tax regularly or agree with your tax advisor

In Germany we advise against this solution. With Umsatzsteuer 0%, the DSFinV-K export writes the revenue as "VAT-exempt" (VAT key 6). For margin-scheme goods, that is factually wrong.

You have two options:

Tax regularly: Put the goods in a dedicated article group with the regular VAT rate, e.g. 19 %. The full selling price is then taxed. This is permitted, because you can waive the margin scheme (Section 25a (8) of the German VAT Act), but it costs more. The dedicated group still separates the revenue in reports and exports.
Agree with your tax advisor: If you want to apply the margin scheme, clarify the procedure with your tax advisor first.

Croatia: not recommended

In Croatia, the Sales Point reports an amount at 0 % to the tax authority as tax-exempt, not as margin taxation. Do not book margin-scheme goods this way. More on receipt transmission under Fiscalisation in Croatia.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change the VAT rate directly on the article? No. An article inherits the VAT rate of its article group. Assign margin-scheme goods to the dedicated group instead.

Can support create a dedicated "margin scheme" VAT rate? This guide does not need one. It works with the existing VAT rate Umsatzsteuer 0%.

I sell new goods and bought-in goods. What goes into the invoice footer? Nothing about the margin scheme. The invoice footer appears on every receipt, including receipts for regularly taxed goods. Include the note in the article name instead.

Troubleshooting

The note in the invoice footer does not appear on the receipt. The Sales Point picks up the invoice footer only after the next Sales Point closing. If the location has its own invoice footer, that one applies instead of the company's.

An article is sold at 20 % instead of 0 %. The article is in a different article group. Assign it to the group for margin-scheme goods.