In the example in this article you need at least €2,000 margin per car at five sales a month, excluding VAT. That is about €2,500 difference between purchase and sale price. If you sell fewer cars, the margin per car has to go up. At three sales a month it is €2,833 in the same example.
Those figures depend on your own costs, so recalculate with your own numbers. This article shows step by step how: what remains of one car, what a day on the lot costs, how to include fixed costs and how much money is tied up in your stock.
In short
- Of a €2,495 difference between purchase and sale, €1,161.79 remains in the example, after VAT on the margin and €900 of costs per car.
- Every day a car of €8,000 stands still costs over €2 at 9.95% interest. After 120 days that is €261.70, before storage or loss of value.
- At 5 sales a month and 45 days in stock, the example has €60,000 of cars on your lot. You need that money first.
All amounts in the examples are illustrations, except the VAT rules and the RDW rates for 2026. Replace them with your own figures.
In this article
What is left over from one used car?
Less than the difference between purchase and sale. In the example you buy a car for €8,000 from a private seller and sell it for €10,495 ready to drive. The difference is €2,495. Of that, €433.02 goes to VAT and €900.19 to costs per car. €1,161.79 remains, before income tax.
The costs per car in the example are parts and cleaning €350, pre-delivery service and MOT €250, a reserve for warranty repairs €150, advertising €40, RDW €12.05 and interest €98.14. The RDW item is €4.20 to add the car to your trade stock via RDW.nl and €7.85 for registering it to the buyer, if you hold the registration accreditation (RDW, accreditation costs 2026).
The warranty reserve is not a luxury. In a consumer sale a defect that appears within a year of delivery is presumed to have been there already. So budget an amount per car for repairs after the sale.
How do you calculate VAT on the margin?
With the margin scheme you pay VAT on the difference between purchase and sale, not on the whole sale price. Deduct the purchase price from the sale price and multiply the difference by 21/121 (Tax Administration, calculating VAT on margin goods). In the example that is 21/121 of €2,495, so €433.02.
For cars the global accounting method is mandatory. You then calculate VAT on the total margin of a tax period, not per car (Tax Administration, records for margin goods). A car sold at a loss thus lowers the VAT on the other cars in the same period. The amount per car in this example is therefore a calculation aid.
Parts you buy for reconditioning do not reduce the margin. You do simply deduct the VAT on those parts as input tax (Tax Administration, VAT when repairing margin goods). That is why the parts are listed excluding VAT among the costs in the example.
What does a day on the lot cost?
In the example, over €2 a day in interest alone. A car of €8,000 financed at 9.95% costs €8,000 x 9.95% / 365 = €2.18 a day. Days in stock are the days a car stands on your lot until it is sold. At 45 days the interest is €98.14, at 120 days €261.70.
The 9.95% is an example. If you use your own money, the interest is what that money would have earned elsewhere. If you borrow, check your own rate. According to the Chamber of Commerce, a microcredit of up to €50,000 can also be used for stock (KVK, microcredit).
Interest is not the only cost. A car standing still also takes up space on your lot and loses value. So do not only calculate per car, but also keep track of how many days each car has been standing.
How much margin do you need to make a living?
Enough to carry your fixed costs and your income, spread over the cars you sell. The formula: (fixed costs per month + desired income per month) / cars sold per month + costs per car. The result is the margin per car excluding VAT. Multiply by 1.21 for the difference between purchase and sale including VAT.
In the example the fixed costs are €1,800 a month: lot €750, insurance €200, platforms and advertising €350, phone and software €100, accountant €200, RDW accreditations and trade plate €105, van and fuel €95. The desired income before income tax is €4,000 a month, the costs per car are €900.
The RDW item comes from the 2026 rates. At the start you pay €44.55 for the basic accreditation, €246 each for the trade stock accreditation and the trade plate, and €145 for the company visit, together €681.55. After that you pay annual costs per accreditation (RDW, accreditation costs 2026). In the example this item also includes the road tax on the trade plate.
| Sales per month | Fixed costs and income per car | Margin per car excl. VAT | Difference purchase and sale incl. VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | €1,933 | €2,833 | €3,428 |
| 4 | €1,450 | €2,350 | €2,844 |
| 5 | €1,160 | €2,060 | €2,493 |
| 6 | €967 | €1,867 | €2,259 |
| 8 | €725 | €1,625 | €1,966 |
Each car fewer per month costs you €200 to €500 extra margin per car in this example. From five to four sales is €290 more, from four to three €483 more. A month with few sales therefore weighs heavily on the margin you need per car.
How much money is tied up in your stock?
Calculate: sales per month x (days in stock / 30) x average purchase price. At 5 sales a month, 45 days in stock and €8,000 purchase price, that is 5 x 1.5 x €8,000 = €60,000 of cars on your lot. You need that money, the working capital, before the first car is sold.
If the cars stand longer, that amount grows with it. At 60 days it is €80,000 in the same example. Shorter days in stock therefore lower not only the interest per car, but also the money you need.
Research points the same way. In a panel of 8,872 Spanish SMEs over 1996 to 2002, researchers found that firms can improve their profitability by reducing their stock and the number of days customers take to pay. They also tested whether the explanation could run the other way, and found that the result held (García-Teruel & Martínez-Solano, 2007).
Among 1,009 large Belgian firms over 1992 to 1996, fewer days of stock went together with higher operating profit. The author himself warns that this may also be because falling sales lead to lower profit and more stock (Deloof, 2003). So it is an association, not proven cause and effect. Neither study is about the car trade.
When is it better not to buy a car?
If you cannot see the difference between purchase and sale price. At five sales a month and the costs from the example, that is at least €2,000 margin excluding VAT, or €2,500 between purchase price and ready-to-drive sale price. If you cannot see that difference in the market for that car, you earn little or nothing from it after costs.
In addition, set aside two amounts with every sale. First the VAT on the margin, 21/121 of the difference between purchase and sale. Then money for income tax. A rule of thumb is 25% of the profit, not of the sale price. In the example with €4,000 profit a month that is €1,000 a month, about €200 per car sold.
Finally, look at six figures every month: the number of sales, the margin per car, the average days in stock, the value of the stock, the bank balance and the number of complaints. Then you see in time whether the margin you need still matches what the market pays.
Sources
- Dutch Tax Administration, Calculating VAT on margin goods, accessed 22 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Dutch Tax Administration, Keeping records when trading in margin goods, accessed 22 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Dutch Tax Administration, Calculating VAT when you repair margin goods, accessed 22 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- RDW, Accreditation costs, rates from 1 January 2026, accessed 22 October 2026. rdw.nl
- KVK, Microcredit: the loan of up to 50,000 euros, accessed 22 October 2026. kvk.nl
- García-Teruel, P.J. & Martínez-Solano, P. (2007). Effects of working capital management on SME profitability. International Journal of Managerial Finance, 3(2), 164-177. doi.org
- Deloof, M. (2003). Does working capital management affect profitability of Belgian firms? Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 30(3-4), 573-588. doi.org