French General Tax Code
In forceI. - 1° The taxable amount for supplies by a taxable reseller of second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items or antiques which have been supplied to him by a person who is not liable for value added tax or by a person who is not authorised to charge value added tax in respect of that supply is the difference between the sale price and the purchase price.
The definition of second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items and antiques is set by decree;
2° For the supply by public auction of second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items or antiques carried out by a taxable person acting in his own name on behalf of a person who is not liable for value added tax or a person who is not authorised to charge value added tax in respect of his supply, the taxable amount is the difference between the total price paid by the successful bidder and the net amount paid by that taxable person to his principal ;
3° For the transfers referred to in III of article 256, carried out by a taxable reseller, of second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items or antiques which have been supplied to him under conditions which would allow the application of the provisions set out in 1° and 2°, the taxable amount is made up of the difference between the value of the goods determined in accordance with c of 1 of Article 266 and the purchase price of the goods;
4° For taxable persons who have exercised the option provided for in Article 297 B, the purchase price referred to in 1° and 3° means, depending on the case, the amount of the delivery, the intra-Community acquisition, or the import value, determined in accordance with Articles 266 or 292, plus value added tax.
II. - The tax base defined in I may be determined globally, for each of the periods covered by the declarations mentioned in article 287, by the difference between the total amount of deliveries and the total amount of purchases of second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items or antiques made during each of the periods under consideration.
If during a period the amount of purchases exceeds that of deliveries, the excess is added to the purchases for the following period.
Taxable resellers who place themselves under this scheme make an annual adjustment by adding the difference between the stock at 31 December and the stock at 1 January of the same year to the purchases for the first subsequent period, as defined in the second paragraph, if this difference is negative, or by deducting it if it is positive.
This method of calculating the taxable amount does not give rise, for the benefit of taxable resellers, to any right to a refund of value added tax in respect of these transactions.
III. - For the supply of works of art, where it is not possible to determine precisely the purchase price paid by a reselling taxable person to the vendor or where this price is not significant, the taxable amount may be constituted by a fraction of the sale price equal to 30% of the latter.
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