A New (Circular) Economy: A New Special Arrangement for Second-Hand Goods!

The EU’s ambition is to achieve a fully circular economy by 2050. The aim of a circular economy is to generate as little waste as possible. A circular organization of the production and distribution chain does not fit well within the European VAT system, which takes the linear production and distribution chain as its starting point. A special VAT regime, the special arrangement for secondhand goods, is necessary to deal with the return of products from the consumer sphere to the productive sphere. Since within a circular economy goods return more often from the consumer sphere to the productive sphere, the special arrangement for secondhand goods is likely to become more important. In this article the author addresses the special arrangement for second-hand goods both in a domestic and an international situation. The author addresses issues within the current arrangement and discusses solutions to improve the special arrangement to make it a better fit for the circular economy. second-hand goods, circular economy, special arrangement, accumulation, movable property, distance sales, intra-Community acquisition, taxable dealer, profit margin, one Stop Shop