Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Two invoices can look almost identical — both without a VAT amount. What you have to do next could not be more different.
Which law? This page follows the Belgian rules. The Netherlands, France and the UK apply different rules.
One question to ask before you buy, not after.
Does your foreign supplier sell under their own margin scheme, or do they invoice with the reverse charge? That single answer decides what goes in your VAT return, what the piece really costs you, and whether you can still resell it under the margin scheme.
Most of what you find online about the intra-Community acquisition covers the second case and says nothing about the first. For a second-hand dealer that is exactly the wrong half: if you buy margin goods, there is no intra-Community acquisition at all.
Three questions at most. By the end you will know what belongs in your VAT return and how you may resell the piece.
Look at the note at the bottom, not at the amount. In both cases no VAT is charged separately.
Your supplier applies their own margin scheme. That scheme and the intra-Community exemption rule each other out — so nothing has been reverse charged, and there is nothing to reverse charge.
Your supplier sells under the ordinary scheme and has shifted the charge to you. You work out the Belgian VAT yourself and declare it.
A private individual is not a taxable person, so there is no intra-Community acquisition, wherever they live.
If an EU supplier charges you their own VAT while the goods travel to Belgium, they either did not use your VAT number or never received it.
This is precisely why the question belongs before the purchase. One sentence does it: "Are you selling this under the margin scheme or with the reverse charge?"
Outside the EU the intra-Community rules do not apply. Since brexit Great Britain belongs in this group.
Send me this outcome
Then you have it to hand when you talk to your accountant. We are not signing you up for anything.
The margin scheme and the intra-Community exemption cannot both apply. If your supplier sells a second-hand piece under their margin scheme, at their end it is not an exempt intra-Community supply — and so at your end it is not an intra-Community acquisition.
No VAT on the invoice does not automatically mean: reverse charged.
That is the trap. Two invoices without a VAT amount, and at a glance almost impossible to tell apart. Anyone who skips the second line declares an acquisition that never existed and deducts VAT that was never charged — and the deduction is the half an inspector keeps.
No VAT amount, no reverse charge, but a reference to the special scheme for second-hand goods. Nothing in box 86, nothing to deduct, and the piece stays a margin good.
No VAT amount, but both VAT numbers and a note about the reverse charge. Box 81, 82 or 83 and box 86, VAT in 55 and 59, and the piece leaves the margin scheme.
These two paths do not only diverge at the purchase. They also decide what you do months later, when the piece finds a buyer.
A piece on which you were able to deduct VAT falls outside the margin scheme. You then sell it with ordinary VAT on the full selling price, not on the margin. If you bought it with a margin invoice or from a private individual, it stays a margin good and you only pay VAT on your profit margin — see How to calculate margin VAT.
So it pays to note which scheme you bought under at the moment you enter the piece. Six months on it will not be fresh in your mind, and the invoice will be at the bottom of a box. For which pieces qualify, read What are margin goods?.
If you later sell that margin good to a dealer in another country, it stays a margin sale: no exemption, no box 46, no listing. What does and does not go into your return on a cross-border sale.
Only when these three hold at once. Drop one and other rules apply — and the margin scheme at your supplier drops the first.
The answer to "which box does that go in?" is four boxes, not one. Filling in box 86 and leaving 81, 82 or 83 empty is the classic mistake.
| Box | What you put in it |
|---|---|
| 81 · 82 · 83 | The purchase amount, by its nature: trading stock and raw materials in 81, services and miscellaneous goods in 82, capital assets in 83. |
| 86 | That same amount a second time, because it is an intra-Community acquisition. |
| 55 | The Belgian VAT you owe on that amount. |
| 59 | That same VAT as deductible VAT — but only as far as you have the right to deduct. |
So the amount appears twice in your return. That is not double counting: they are two different questions the form asks — what did you buy, and where did it come from.
For services from another EU country it is box 88, not 86. Have a piece restored in France and shipped back, and that is a service, not an acquisition.
Always check the box numbers on your own return form and put doubtful cases to your accountant. This article is general explanation, not tax advice.
The boxes above are Belgian. The idea — you work out the VAT yourself and deduct it on the same return — holds just as well in the Netherlands and France. In the UK the acquisition no longer exists since Brexit.
the VAT in box 55, the deduction in 59 — the amount appears twice on your return
you work out the Dutch VAT yourself; the deduction goes in section 5b of that same return
the VAT on line 08 or 09 depending on the rate, the total on line 17, the deduction on 19 or 20
since 1 January 2021 a purchase from an EU supplier is an import, not an acquisition. Northern Ireland follows its own rules.
⚠️ The UK is therefore not a variant but a different road: there you pay import VAT, and postponed VAT accounting lets you declare and reclaim it on the same return. What that means for a second-hand dealer is in Buying pieces in the UK after Brexit.
Only for a purchase with the reverse charge. If you bought under the margin scheme, this block stays empty — there is nothing to declare.
| Box | What | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 81 | Purchase amount | — |
| 86 | Intra-Community acquisition | — |
| 55 | VAT due | — |
| 59 | Deductible VAT | — |
With a full right to deduct the outcome is €0.00: what you declare, you deduct again in the same return. If your right to deduct is limited, the difference really does stay a cost.
If you are exempt as a small business, or have no right to deduct, different rules apply. As long as your intra-Community purchases stay below €11,200 per calendar year, you declare no acquisition in Belgium: you pay the VAT of your supplier's country and that is that.
Go over that threshold and you must apply for a VAT identification for intra-Community acquisitions, give that number to your supplier, and pay the Belgian VAT through a special VAT return — a different form from the periodic return. That VAT is not deductible: it is a real cost.
The second point matters more than it looks: if you mostly buy from dealers who apply the margin scheme, those purchases do not count towards the threshold, however many you make. So do not count your entire foreign buying.
Two things that often go wrong here.
One: that €11,200 is Belgian. Operating from the Netherlands or France, the threshold there is €10,000 — the European minimum. Belgium applies a higher figure inherited from an old conversion. The UK sits outside the EU VAT territory, so this threshold does not exist there at all.
Two: your margin purchases do not count towards it. That follows from what is above — if your supplier applies the margin scheme there is no intra-Community acquisition, so there is nothing to add to the threshold. The Dutch tax authority says it in as many words: margin goods never count in the threshold calculation.
Checked on 31 August 2026: Belgian FPS Finance (€11,200), Belastingdienst (Netherlands, €10,000) and BOFiP, PBRD regime, BOI-TVA-CHAMP-10-10-40-20 (France, €10,000).
At an inspection it comes down to two questions: which scheme did you buy under, and did something genuinely cross the border?
As the buyer you file no intra-Community listing yourself: that list is for supplies, and so for your supplier. If you later sell to a VAT-registered customer in another EU country, it again depends on the scheme you sell under — for a margin sale there is no listing either.
The scheme you bought under decides, months later, how you sell.
Vintro Pro keeps track per piece of where it came from and what was paid for it, so you do not have to recall that decision from memory on the day the piece goes out the door.
Where to find this in the app: for each item you fill in Purchase date, Supplier, Invoice number and Purchase price, and under Proof of purchase you pick where the piece came from. In the table view the Margin quick pick switches on exactly those columns, you filter on one supplier, and you export that selection through 🛠️ Actions → Export to Excel — ready to lay beside your VAT return.
Only if they invoice with the reverse charge. If they sell under their own margin scheme there is no intra-Community acquisition: you declare nothing, you deduct nothing, and your purchase price is the full invoice amount.
With a reverse charge both VAT numbers appear on the invoice, together with a note that VAT is reverse charged. Under the margin scheme you find a reference to the special scheme for second-hand goods, and no VAT amount at all. If you are unsure, ask before you buy rather than after.
The purchase of goods from a taxable supplier in another EU country, where the goods are transported to Belgium and you buy using your Belgian VAT number. All three conditions have to be met.
The amount goes in box 86, and also in box 81, 82 or 83 depending on what you bought. The Belgian VAT due goes in box 55, the deductible VAT in box 59.
No. You were able to deduct the VAT on that purchase, so the piece falls outside the margin scheme. You sell it with ordinary VAT on the full selling price.
Not for Great Britain: since brexit that is an import, with a customs declaration and import VAT. Goods from Northern Ireland do still count as intra-Community; for goods those suppliers have a VAT number starting with XI.
Vintro Pro keeps the supplier, invoice number, purchase price and proof of purchase with every piece — and puts them into one overview for your accountant in a single click.