Spread, margin and fees: what you actually keep
Broker fee and sales tax eat into the spread. We compute net margin, the exact break-even floor and how far skills and standings push it down.
Key takeaways
- To break even on station trading with no skills you need a ~14–15% spread: broker ~3% on the buy, ~3% on the sell and ~7.5% sales tax on the sell. A 10% spread at zero skills is a loss.
- Margin = (sell price − buy price − all fees) ÷ buy price. The “Margin” column uses bare fees (skills at zero); “My margin” uses your real skills and standings and is almost always higher.
- Training drops the break-even floor from ~14–15% to ~7%: Accounting V cuts tax from 7.5% to ~3.4%, Broker Relations V cuts the fee from ~3% to ~1.5%, and standings pull it toward a ~1% floor.
- Training order: Accounting → Broker Relations → standings; if you re-price often, add Advanced Broker Relations (relist discount up to 80% at V).
What fees do you pay and where do they hit?
Sales tax is about 7.5% at Accounting 0 (CCP cut it from 8% in a March 2025 patch). It’s charged only when your sell order fills, on the sale price. Each level of Accounting cuts it by roughly 11% relative, so at Accounting V it’s about 3.4%. There’s no tax on buying.
The broker fee is about 3% at Broker Relations 0. It’s charged when you place an order, on both buy and sell. The Broker Relations skill lowers it by roughly 0.3 pp per level (to about 1.5% at V), and standings with the owning faction and corporation pull it lower still, toward a floor near 1%.
How is net margin calculated?
Margin = (sell price − buy price − all fees) ÷ buy price. The “Margin” column on Market computes it on bare fees — as if you had no trade skills (Accounting/Broker Relations at zero). That’s deliberately a lower, conservative bound: better to under- than over-state it. “My margin” (for logged-in users) recomputes it from your real skills and standings — and is almost always higher than the public one.
Don’t confuse margin with spread. “Spread” is the raw price gap before fees; “Margin” is what survives them. Make decisions on margin, and keep spread as a quick “is there anything to look at here at all” indicator.
How much spread do you need to break even?
If you both buy and sell via orders, fees hit on both sides: broker on the buy (~3%), broker on the sell (~3%) and sales tax on the sell (~7.5%). With no trade skills that means you need roughly a 14–15% spread just to break even. A “fat” 10%-spread line at zero skills is a loss.
Training moves the floor sharply. At Accounting V and Broker Relations V the sell side drops from ~10.5% to ~5%, and the buy-side broker from 3% to ~1.5%. The break-even floor falls to roughly 7%, and lower with standings. That’s exactly why a seasoned trader can take trades a newcomer can’t. This very gap is what you see between the “Margin” (zero skills) and “My margin” columns.
Which skills pay off first?
The training order is almost always the same: Accounting (cuts sales tax, the biggest fee) → Broker Relations (cuts the broker fee on placing orders, on both sides) → standings with the faction/corp of the hubs you trade. And if you re-price a lot, add Advanced Broker Relations: it discounts the broker fee on re-listing orders — up to 80% at V. They all pay back faster than any “secret item”, because they lower your cost on every trade, not once.
A practical move: log into Mercator and compare “Margin” vs “My margin” across your basket. The gap between them is, in pure form, how much your trained fees already earn you — or still could.
FAQ
How much spread do you need to break even in EVE station trading?
With no trade skills you need roughly a 14–15% spread: fees hit both sides — broker ~3% on the buy, ~3% on the sell and ~7.5% sales tax on the sell. Trained up (Accounting V, Broker Relations V) the floor falls to about 7%, and lower with standings.
How is margin calculated in EVE trading?
Margin = (sell price − buy price − all fees) ÷ buy price. Don’t confuse it with spread: spread is the raw price gap before fees, margin is what survives them. Make decisions on margin.
What two fees does an EVE trader pay and where do they hit?
Sales tax is ~7.5% at Accounting 0 (CCP cut it from 8% in a March 2025 patch), charged only when your sell order fills; there’s no tax on buying. The broker fee is ~3% at Broker Relations 0, charged when you place an order, on both buy and sell.
Which trade skills should you train first in EVE?
The order is almost always the same: Accounting (cuts sales tax, the biggest fee) → Broker Relations (cuts the fee on both sides, to ~1.5% at V) → standings with the hubs’ faction/corp. If you re-price often, add Advanced Broker Relations: relist discount up to 80% at V.