Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Buying or selling second-hand goods, art or antiques in the UK? Since Brexit two systems sit side by side. They look alike — and that is exactly where it goes wrong.
The VAT Margin Scheme is the UK counterpart of the European margin scheme. HMRC charges VAT not on your full selling price, but only on the difference between what you paid and what you received.
The purpose is exactly the same as on the continent: avoiding double taxation. When you buy from a private individual there was no VAT in that purchase for you to reclaim. Without a margin scheme you would be taxed a second time on money that has already been taxed.
The VAT sits inside the margin, not on top of it.
That is the same rule as in Belgium. The UK rate is 20%, and 20% contained within an amount is 20/120 — which is one sixth. That is why HMRC writes it that way. Calculate margin × 20% instead and you will pay too much.
You buy a second-hand watch for £1,200 and later sell it for £1,800.
Without the margin scheme, VAT would be charged on the full £1,800, which is £300. That £200 difference on a single watch is precisely why the scheme exists.
Two amounts in pounds is all it takes. The tool uses the HMRC rule: one sixth of the margin.
The scheme covers the four categories you would expect in a second-hand business:
And it explicitly does not cover:
That first exclusion is the important one, and it is logical: if you received an invoice with VAT on it, you have already been able to reclaim that VAT. There is no double taxation left to avoid.
Vehicles, horses, houseboats, caravans and pawned goods follow their own HMRC rules on top of this. If you sell those, do not rely on the general explanation.
This is the part most articles skip, and it is the part that decides how you calculate. Alongside the ordinary margin scheme sits a second system: global accounting.
You work out the margin for each item sold, separately. A loss on one item does not offset a profit on another: a negative margin simply counts as zero.
You add up all purchases and all sales in the period and take the difference. If the result is negative, that shortfall is carried forward to the next period.
Global accounting is only allowed where the purchase price per item is £500 or less. Aircraft, boats and outboard motors, caravans and motor caravans, horses and ponies and most motor vehicles are excluded — a motor vehicle only qualifies if it is sold on as scrap.
Global accounting is the UK equivalent of the Belgian globalisation method — but with a £500 per-item ceiling that Belgium does not have.
A UK business must register for VAT as soon as its taxable turnover over the past twelve months goes above £90,000. That is a rolling twelve-month period, not a calendar year: you measure again every month.
You must also register as soon as you expect to exceed that £90,000 in the next thirty days alone. Both figures have stood since 1 April 2024, when the threshold rose from £85,000 to £90,000. It is one of the highest VAT thresholds in the world.
Since 1 January 2021 the UK is a third country for VAT purposes. Goods crossing the border are no longer an intra-Community supply, but an export and an import.
Selling from Belgium to a UK buyer is an exempt export (0%), provided the export declaration is correct. The UK buyer pays UK duty and import VAT at the border themselves, on top of your price. Say so up front — it is the single most common reason a parcel gets refused.
Three rules you will read in any general VAT article do not apply here. They fall away the moment an item sits under the margin scheme — which, for you, is the rule rather than the exception.
This is where it goes wrong most often — and you only find out at the audit.
“My UK supplier sold under the margin scheme, so I can apply it when I resell.”
That is not right. The European margin scheme covers goods supplied to you within the Union — by a private individual, by an exempt business, or by another taxable dealer who applied the margin scheme themselves. A purchase in the UK is not a supply within the Union. It is an import.
You import, pay Belgian import VAT (which you can reclaim) and then resell with ordinary VAT on the full selling price. The margin does not survive the border.
If you import those yourself, you may opt for the margin scheme. Your purchase price is then the taxable amount on importation plus the import VAT you paid.
What the item is decides whether your margin survives the border.
If you opt for the margin scheme on imported art or antiques, you cannot also reclaim that import VAT — it is already built into your purchase price. Counting it twice is the classic mistake here. Settle that choice with your accountant in advance.
| United Kingdom | Belgium | |
|---|---|---|
| VAT on the margin | 20% — 1/6 of the margin | 21% — 21/121 of the margin |
| Usual method | Item by item | Globalisation, per period |
| Totalling per period | Global accounting, only where purchase ≤ £500 per item | Already the usual method, with no per-item ceiling |
| Loss on an item | Counts as zero; global accounting carries the shortfall forward | Offsets within the same period |
| Registration threshold | £90,000 — but £0 if you are not established there | Small business exemption from €25,000 |
| Who oversees it | HMRC | FPS Finance |
The two systems look very much alike, and that is precisely the danger: carry the Belgian habit into a UK sale and you will be totalling per period where HMRC expects a calculation per item.
Vintro Pro is built for Belgian dealers, but it accounts for those who buy and sell across the border.
Where to find this in the app: your company’s country sits in 🏢 Company settings. The VAT report is on the 📦 (stock) tab → 🛠️ Actions → under Reports → 🧾 Margin VAT calculation.
One sixth of your margin. The UK rate is 20% and that VAT is contained within the margin, so 20/120 = 1/6. On a margin of £600 you pay £100 in VAT.
£90,000 of taxable turnover over a rolling twelve-month period. If your turnover drops below £88,000 you may ask to cancel your registration. If you are not established in the UK there is no threshold at all: registration is required from your very first supply.
Not for ordinary second-hand goods. The EU margin scheme covers goods supplied to you within the Union, and a purchase in the UK is an import. For works of art, collectors' items and antiques that you import yourself, you may opt for the margin scheme.
A second UK system in which you add up all purchases and all sales in a period instead of calculating item by item. It is only open to goods with a purchase price of £500 or less, and excludes aircraft, boats, caravans, horses and most motor vehicles.
No. That is the whole point of the scheme: you do not charge VAT on the full selling price, and you deduct nothing on the purchase side. If you were charged VAT on an invoice, the item falls outside the margin scheme anyway.
From the invoice: a margin scheme invoice shows no separate VAT amount. There is only a total price, often with a reference to the margin scheme. Keep that document with the item itself — at an audit, provenance is the first thing asked for.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Rates and thresholds change; check them with HMRC or your accountant before setting up a transaction. Reviewed on 20 August 2026.
Vintro Pro keeps purchase price, proof of purchase and margin per item — in euros or in pounds, with an estimate of your import costs and a VAT report per period.