The Second-Hand Goods Register: France’s Overlooked Obligation

Quick answer. Any professional buying second-hand goods in France, even for a small share of transactions, must keep a register of movable objects. Article 321-7 of the French Criminal Code requires it to be kept day by day. Failure to keep it is punishable by six months' imprisonment and a 30,000 EUR fine. The obligation is not limited to antique dealers: the French Directorate General for Enterprise states it covers any second-hand professional, in any sector.

Second-hand is no longer a niche market. Vintage shops, consignment stores, refurbished phone retailers, clothing boutiques taking pieces back from customers: buying from private individuals has become routine. The obligation that comes with it has remained largely unknown, and it is a criminal one.

This is the point most business owners miss, because they associate the topic with antique dealers.

The obligation applies to any professional whose activity involves, even for a small proportion of transactions, the sale or exchange of second-hand goods, or of goods acquired from persons who are neither their manufacturer nor their trader.

The Directorate General for Enterprise is explicit about the scope: the rules concern not only antique dealers and brokers but any professional dealing in second-hand goods, in any sector, with clothing and leisure goods expressly cited.

Two phrases deserve attention. "Even in small proportion": there is no tolerance threshold, and an ancillary buy-back activity is enough to fall within scope. "In any sector": this is not antique-dealer regulation, it is second-hand trade regulation.

The allocation between texts is worth stating precisely, because it is often written that a block of articles "requires the register", which is inaccurate.

The obligation to keep the register therefore rests on article 321-7. The regulatory articles organise its form, and article 321-8 addresses the trader's behaviour during a check, which is an offence distinct from the absence of a register.

The purpose of the rule is simple: at any moment, it must be possible to trace an item held in the business back to the person who brought it in.

In practice this means recording, at the time of the transaction rather than later:

• the identity of the seller, taken from an official document;
• a description of the item, precise enough to identify it unambiguously, which means the serial number or IMEI for an electronic device;
• the date of acquisition;
• the price paid;
• and, on the way out, the corresponding disposal.

The register is kept day by day. That is a requirement of method as much as of law: a register reconstructed at month-end from memory and receipts is not a chronological register.

Six months' imprisonment and a 30,000 EUR fine for failure to keep it. This is not an administrative fine, it is a criminal penalty.

But the risk most frequently realised is not criminal, it is fiscal. A business applying the VAT margin scheme must be able to demonstrate that its goods were acquired from persons who could not charge VAT. The register is precisely what establishes that. Without it, an inspector has no reason to accept the scheme, and the consequence is mechanical: VAT is then computed on the full selling price rather than on the margin, across the whole audited period.

In other words, a trader who does not keep the register faces a criminal offence they will probably never see enforced, and a VAT reassessment they will see very clearly.

This is the most common confusion among traders who have already heard of the topic.

The register of movable objects derives from the Criminal Code. Its purpose is traceability and the prevention of handling stolen goods. It concerns the police.

The second-hand goods register kept by a margin-scheme dealer derives from tax rules. Its purpose is to support the computation of the VAT margin, item by item. It concerns the tax authorities.

The two coexist and do not replace one another. Good practice is to design a single document satisfying both sets of entries, which is feasible since they overlap substantially, rather than keeping two files that will diverge in the first busy month. The tax mechanism is detailed in our guide to the VAT margin scheme on second-hand goods.

The vintage shop. It buys clothing from private individuals to resell: it is within scope, without discussion. Low unit values change nothing about the obligation; they only make record-keeping harder, which argues for a tool rather than a notebook.

The consignment store. Everything depends on the legal model. If it buys the pieces, it is within scope. If it sells as an agent on behalf of the depositor without ever becoming the owner, the qualification deserves case-by-case review, but traceability of the depositor remains indispensable in any event, notably for accounting for the commission.

The phone shop. This is where the register serves the trader the most. It documents the provenance of every device, secures the margin scheme, and provides a trail should the provenance of a device later be disputed. It is also the opportunity to build the useful pre-payment checks into the buy-back form.

Motor trade professionals know the livre de police, with entries specific to vehicles: identification number, registration document, identity of the transferor. The spirit of traceability is the same, but the documentary regime is distinct and adapted to vehicles. If your activity concerns used vehicles, our dedicated article on the livre de police automobile is the one to read; this article covers every other kind of goods.

On a second-hand file the sequence is always the same, and it happens at the outset:

1. Qualify whether the obligation applies, based on actual activity and purchase flows.
2. Design a buy-back form that collects, at the counter, the entries the register expects.
3. Connect the register to the accounts, so that the recorded purchase price is the one used to compute the margin.
4. Separate the accounting streams between purchases with and without deductible VAT, failing which the taxable base becomes impossible to reconstruct.

This is the framework we apply as accountants for second-hand and refurbished retail, and it applies equally to a vintage or consignment shop.

• Article 321-7 of the Criminal Code requires the register of movable objects to be kept day by day.
• Scope goes far beyond antique dealers: any second-hand professional, in any sector, even in small proportion of transactions.
• Penalty for failure to keep it: six months' imprisonment and a 30,000 EUR fine.
• The criminal register and the tax register for the margin scheme coexist: both must be satisfied.
• The risk most often realised is fiscal: without evidence of provenance, VAT is computed on the full selling price.