Differenzbesteuerung: Why Your Refurbished Phone Invoice Shows No VAT
3 min read
The refurbished iPhone arrives, and the invoice next to it shows one total. No 19 % line, no tax figure. Looks like somebody messed up.
Nobody did.
What sits there instead
The mechanism is the margin scheme under § 25a UStG: a dealer taxes only the margin on a device bought in without deductible input VAT, usually from a private seller, the normal route for refurbished devices.
So the tax can't appear as its own line. § 14a Abs. 6 UStG requires a note reading "Gebrauchtgegenstände/Sonderregelung" instead, and that's the wording to look for. It's not the § 19 UStG Kleinunternehmerregelung, where no VAT is charged.
Privately, nothing changes
The price shown is the price you pay, tax included.
Your rights don't move either. Statutory Gewährleistung, the legal claim for defects, comes from the purchase contract, not the invoice, so § 438 BGB applies unchanged. Only the voluntary manufacturer warranty can suffer when parts get swapped, as the Verbraucherzentrale notes. More in our warranty guide.
Buying for a business
No VAT stated means nothing to reclaim. The Handelskammer Hamburg says a reseller may not state the tax separately even to a VAT-registered buyer, and asgoodasnew writes the same into its own terms. The price stays deductible as a Betriebsausgabe, but the VAT never comes back from the Finanzamt. So 900 euros is 900 euros, not 900 minus 19 %. If Vorsteuerabzug matters to you, ask your Steuerberater and look for a regular-taxed listing.
Per listing, not per retailer
Whether an item is margin-scheme depends on the individual device. Refurbed's own FAQ says statutory VAT is shown except on explicitly margin-scheme products, and asgoodasnew says the same in its § 4. Back Market mentions Differenzbesteuerung in general, without naming § 25a UStG. rebuy publishes nothing first-party that we could find. We're not guessing.
Four offers therefore means four product pages. How the platforms differ otherwise sits in our platform comparison.
Current as of 13 August 2026. Not tax advice, just the law and what the retailers publish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a margin-scheme phone a disadvantage for me?
Not privately. You pay the same final price, tax included. Gewährleistung follows the purchase contract, not the invoice.
Can a business reclaim the input VAT?
No. With no VAT stated there's no Vorsteuerabzug to claim. The purchase price still counts as a business expense.
Are all refurbished devices margin-scheme?
No. It depends on how the retailer sourced that unit. Refurbed and asgoodasnew both mention the two variants.
Sources
- margin scheme under § 25a UStG gesetze-im-internet.de
- note reading "Gebrauchtgegenstände/Sonderregelung" gesetze-im-internet.de
- § 438 BGB gesetze-im-internet.de
- Verbraucherzentrale verbraucherzentrale.de
- Handelskammer Hamburg handelskammer-hamburg.de
- asgoodasnew writes the same into its own terms asgoodasnew.de
- Refurbed's own FAQ refurbed.de
