65 fashion brands back tax cuts to boost resale and repair
More than 69 fashion groups are pushing tax cuts for resale and repair, arguing circular fashion cannot scale while governments keep taxing it like a side business.
A rare coalition of fashion’s old guard and resale’s fast-growing platforms is pressing governments to change the economics of circular fashion. Stella McCartney, H&M Group, Inditex, Vivobarefoot, Amer Sports, Arc’teryx, Ecoalf, ThredUp, Vestiaire Collective and Vinted are among 69 fashion and textile organizations backing a policy statement from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that treats resale and repair as a serious industrial market, not a niche virtue signal.
The ask is blunt. In the European Union, the coalition wants lower VAT and lower labor taxes. In the United States and Canada, it wants sales tax removed from resold products and repair services, along with labor tax credits for the jobs that keep clothing moving through the economy. The foundation says the current system is “stacked against” circular business models, even though resale and repair can extend the life of garments, cut waste and support local work in sorting, logistics, alterations and retail.
The prize is large enough to explain why so many different players signed on. The foundation says targeted policy changes could push gross profit margins as high as 55 percent for resale and 41 percent for repair. H&M Group says Ellen MacArthur Foundation research points to $700 billion in potential value from resale and repair by 2030, with those businesses reaching as much as 23 percent of the global fashion market.
That scale matters because the coalition is broader than apparel labels alone. Alongside designers and global chains are secondhand marketplaces and sector groups, a mix that signals how much the resale economy has matured. Leyla Ertur, H&M Group’s sustainability chief, said resale keeps products in use while meeting demand for affordable and sustainable choices, but remains economically penalized under the current rules.
The push builds on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Fashion ReModel initiative, launched in 2024 and later supported by H&M Foundation, which was designed to help brands earn money from rental, repair, resale and remake rather than relying only on new garment production. If governments leave the tax structure untouched, the advantage stays with the linear model. If they move, repair shops, resale platforms and the workers who keep clothes in circulation finally get a fighting chance.
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