Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Practical articles on inventory management, margins, and admin — written for antique and secondhand dealers.
Looking for how to use the app itself? → To the guide
Rather try it yourself first? → To the demo
Rather news than explanation? → Found in the press
Looking for the tax office, an auction house or a fair? → Useful links by country
58 short questions, each at its own address — with the source and the date it was checked. The long version is in the articles below.
The margin scheme, imports, and what happens to VAT when you buy or sell across a border.
Tax on the profit margin, not the full sale price — with a calculation example.
The formula, the two classic mistakes, and a calculator for your own quarter.
Which goods qualify for the margin scheme, and which don't.
A French VAT number on the invoice does not turn a margin sale into an exempt supply. So what does?
If your supplier applies the margin scheme, there is no intra-Community acquisition.
What you pay when buying in the UK, what it is calculated on, and why the British margin scheme does not come with it.
United KingdomVAT on your margin (one sixth of the difference), the £90,000 threshold, and what Brexit changed.
Never worn, still boxed — does it still count as second-hand? Yes, and here is why.
Art, antiques, furniture, books, bicycles, jewellery: does your type of piece fall under the scheme, and where does it stop?
Yes — but never on a piece you were charged VAT for. HMRC takes one-sixth of the margin.
What you record per piece, how your stock turns over, and when a spreadsheet stops being enough.
Four countries, four demands. HMRC asks for a stock book, Belgium for three registers — and they largely want the same data.
Product code, quantity, reorder point, minimum stock: all four fall away when every piece is one of a kind.
Often it is. An honest answer about where the line sits — and why ordinary stock software does not fit one-off pieces either.
How many times a year do you sell your entire stock? Work out your own ratio and days on hand.
Calculate how much capital is tied up in your longest-sitting items.
Till, web shop, spreadsheet or per piece? Four of the six outcomes send you somewhere other than to us.
Starting a second-hand business, and what you need to turn over to live on it — country by country.
The 7-step lifecycle growing secondhand businesses use to stay on top of things.
BelgiumTurn your take-home pay into the margin you need every week. Belgian social contributions and tax, with the 2026 rates.
NetherlandsFirst a € 1,200 deduction, then 12.7 % exempt, and only then tax. The order matters more than the rate.
FranceIn a micro-entreprise your contributions follow your turnover, not your profit. What that changes, with the 2026 rates.
United KingdomTurn your take-home pay into the margin you need every week. With the UK rates for 2026/27.
Obligations that are not about VAT: reporting to the tax office, e-invoicing, and trading at markets.
Your platform reports you from 30 sales or about £1,700. That is a report, not a tax bill — and here is where the line really runs.
Belgian law since January 2026 — but only between businesses. Selling to a private buyer falls outside it; selling to a colleague does not.
Two countries scrapped their permit, France wants a four-year card and the UK a licence from each council.
Yes — and that sale is what makes the margin scheme possible. Which purchase record each of the four countries asks for.
In four countries it is written into law. What to count, at what value, and why your asking price does not belong in it.
The whole chain in one guide: from numbering the piece to the VAT return. Seven links, four countries, with a calculator.
In the UK antiques are exempt from price marking. What still belongs on a label, and how big a QR code has to be to scan.
Four times you do not need us, with the reason. A comparison in which we win everywhere convinces nobody.
Two thresholds that get confused: 10,000 euros makes you regulated, 3,000 euros caps cash. With a calculator per country.
A dust coat yes, a suit for the fair nowhere, and a sweater with your logo only in the Netherlands. Country by country, from the rules.
No fixed period in the UK and the Netherlands, two years in Belgium and France. And who has to prove the fault was there? Country by country, from the statute.
Practical articles on margin VAT, margin scheme goods, stock management, importing and exporting after Brexit, and starting a second-hand business — written from the daily practice of an antique business.
The articles cover Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. Wherever the rule differs per country, that difference is spelled out.
No. They explain how the rules work and point to the source, but they do not replace your accountant.
Yes. Every figure is checked against the government source itself, with the date of that check alongside it, and an article is updated as soon as a rule changes.
No. Every article is free to read, without an account.