Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
You earn a wage today. To live on that as a dealer you have to make a good deal more than that wage — social contributions and tax sit in between.
Written by Griet Coussement, founder of Vintro Pro and Vintiques Export
This article works in Belgian rules. Every rate, threshold and obligation below is for a business registered in Belgium. Trading from the Netherlands, France or the UK? The calculator does not hold for you — there is a card for each country at the bottom.
Margin is the number you actually trade on. Not turnover, not the number of pieces.
The calculator below turns your wage around: put in what lands in your account today, and see how much margin you need to make each week to end up there as a self-employed dealer. Everything follows the Belgian rules for 2026.
| Margin on your pieces, per year— | — |
| Margin VAT21% on the difference between buying and selling price, not on your full selling price | — |
| Fixed costs | — |
| Profit before social contributions and tax | — |
| Social contributions20.5% of your net taxable income | — |
| Management fee of your social insurance fund— | — |
| Personal income tax and municipal surcharge | — |
| What you keep— | — |
Worked for a sole trader in their main occupation, with no dependent children, no partner with or without income and no other reliefs. A figure to start planning with, not a tax return.
From margin to what you keep, in three steps
Step 1
Your margin The difference between what you pay for your pieces and what you get for them.Step 2
Your profit Minus 21% margin VAT on that difference, and minus your fixed costs.Step 3
What you keep Minus 20.5% social contributions, the management fee, income tax and the municipal surcharge.The figure above is what you need to keep the same amount. But the same net amount is not the same life.
The pension of a self-employed person on a small income is low. Anyone who wants to correct that puts money aside themselves — and a voluntary supplementary pension is deductible, which saves you on both your tax and your social contributions.
If you drop out, your turnover stops. There is a benefit for self-employed people unfit for work, but it sits well below what you are used to. Income protection is not a luxury for someone working alone.
This is the real difference in antiques and vintage. A good month means you bought a lot, and so your account is empty. On top of the figure above, plan for a buffer that carries you three to six months without selling a single piece.
The calculator works as a sole trader, because that is how almost everyone starts. But the difference is not a detail: the same profit is taxed in completely different ways.
A company only starts to pay off when you structurally make more profit than you need to live on. As long as you draw everything you earn, you are taxed twice — corporate tax first, then personal income tax — and you keep less at the bottom line than as a sole trader, with more cost and more paperwork on top.
Anywhere near that point, have your accountant put both scenarios side by side with your own numbers.
Draw everything out, and a company pays twice
Sole trader
Company (bv)
One thing that often gets missed: if you sell through an online platform, it reports your sales to the tax authority from 30 sales or more than 2,000 euro a year — before you have registered anything. What that report means, and when you really are trading.
If you also work as an employee, you start as a secondary occupation. As long as your net taxable income stays below € 1,922.16 a year you pay no social contributions; above that it is 20.5% on what you actually earn. In a main occupation you pay a minimum contribution every quarter, including a quarter in which you sell nothing — though as a starter you get a lower rate for the first quarters. In antiques, a secondary occupation is almost always the sensible start: your money sits in pieces, not in your account.
That goes through an accredited business counter and costs € 111.50. You get a ten-digit number that is immediately your VAT number. Have your activities registered broadly enough: retail in second-hand goods and antiques, and the itinerant activity if you want to stand at markets or fairs.
This is new, and many starter pages are still full of it. The itinerant trading permit has been abolished, region by region: in Flanders since 1 April 2024, in Brussels since 1 April 2024 and in Wallonia by the decree of 27 February 2025 (Belgian Official Gazette, 10 March 2025). A registration in the Crossroads Bank that allows your itinerant activity is enough, and you may start straight away. A pitch is still arranged with the municipality or the market organiser.
If you stay under € 25,000 turnover a year (€ 26,000 from 2027) you can use the exemption regime for small businesses: no VAT charged, no VAT reclaimed, no periodic returns — but still a yearly customer listing. Look at the next step first, though, because in the second-hand trade your VAT is small anyway.
If you buy from private sellers there was no VAT on your purchase, so there is nothing to reclaim. The margin scheme means you only pay VAT on your profit margin, not on the full selling price. It applies to second-hand goods, works of art and antiques bought from, among others, a private person, someone without the right to deduct or a dealer who already applied the margin themselves.
On your invoice you may not show the VAT separately, and it must state: “Bijzondere regeling - gebruikte goederen” / “Régime particulier - Biens d'occasion” (special scheme - second-hand goods; or works of art, or collectors' items and antiques), under Royal Decree no. 53, art. 8. “VAT not deductible” may be added, but is not required. More on this in what margin VAT is and what margin goods are.
This is where it goes wrong for almost everyone — not in the sums, but in the evidence. FOD Financiën asks for a purchase slip, a purchase register, a comparison register and a number per piece. Royal Decree no. 53 itself asks for a yearly inventory. If you buy from a private person, you draw up that purchase document yourself, because the seller will not: name, address, date, description, price, signature. No purchase evidence, no margin — and then you pay VAT on your full selling price.
How to close that off for each declaration period, step by step, is in the margin VAT per period guide.
If you sell through Vinted, 2dehands, eBay, Etsy or Catawiki, those platforms pass your details to the tax authority once you reach 30 sales or pass € 2,000 a year. Clearing your own loft is not trading, but buying in structurally to sell on is — even at a small scale. So be in order before that signal reaches the tax office, not after.
Your starting list in Belgium, in short
Everything above follows Belgian rules as they stand in 2026. For completeness, so you can check it or put it to your accountant:
The amounts and thresholds are indexed every year. This is general information based on public sources, not tax or legal advice. Always put your own situation to your accountant, your social insurance fund or FOD Financiën.
social contributions on your net taxable income, plus personal income tax in four bands. This is what the calculator does.
A € 1,200 deduction, then 12.7 % exempt, then box 1. It has its own page.
micro-entreprise or réel: cotisations sociales as a percentage of your turnover, not your profit. Work it out at URSSAF, or read the French page.
income tax plus National Insurance classes 2 and 4, with a personal allowance instead of a tax-free sum. Work it out at HMRC, or read the UK page.
Vintro Pro keeps your stock, your purchase register and your margin VAT, and prints your labels. Exactly the paperwork this article is about.
30 days free, no card number.
More than your net salary. Between your margin and what actually stays in your account sit the VAT on your margin, your fixed costs, social security contributions of 20.5% and personal income tax. The calculator on this page turns your current net salary into the margin you would have to make each week to match it.
20.5% on your net taxable professional income, plus the administration costs of your social insurance fund. A minimum contribution always applies, including in a quarter in which you sell nothing. Above €75,024.54 the rate drops to 14.16%.
With antiques and vintage, a secondary occupation is almost always the sensible start, because your money sits in pieces and not in your account. If your net taxable income stays below €1,922.16 a year, you pay no social security contributions in a secondary occupation. In a main occupation you pay a minimum contribution every quarter, even with no sales.
No. The authorisation for itinerant activities has been abolished: in Flanders since 1 April 2024, in Brussels since 1 April 2024 and in Wallonia by the decree of 27 February 2025 (Belgian Official Gazette, 10 March 2025). A registration in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises that permits your itinerant activity is enough. A pitch is still arranged with the municipality or the market organiser.
On your margin, if you sell under the margin scheme. It applies to second-hand goods, works of art and antiques that you bought from, among others, a private person, someone with no right of deduction or a dealer who already applied the margin scheme. Without proof of purchase the margin falls away and you pay VAT on your full selling price.