Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Antiques are named separately in the scheme. The question that trips dealers up is a different one: how far may you restore?
Antiques fall under the margin scheme — until you have them restored too thoroughly.
Antiques fall under the margin scheme. Renovated goods do not, and for antiques that is the limit that matters.
Antiques are the heart of this scheme. In the UK, article 12(2) of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 names antiques explicitly, alongside works of art, collectors’ items and second-hand goods.
Where it does get delicate is at the workbench. Between polishing a piece and rebuilding it lies a line that flips the VAT treatment — and that line is not expressed in years.
Article 2 of the 1995 Order defines antiques as objects, other than works of art or collectors’ items, that are more than 100 years old. A chest of drawers from 1890 bought from an heir and resold fits without argument. A younger piece is not lost: it is second-hand goods, tangible movable property suitable for further use as it is or after repair.
The word repair is there on purpose. Repairing does not take a piece out of the scheme. The 1995 Order has no separate exclusion for renovated goods; Belgium’s exclusion list does.
Article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 defines second-hand goods as “tangible movable property that is suitable for further use as it is or after repair, other than motor cars, works of art, collectors’ items or antiques and other than precious metals and precious stones”. Article 12(2) opens the margin scheme to “works of art, antiques and collectors’ items” and “second-hand goods”.
That is the whole test, and it is a test about the goods, not about your trade. The power to charge VAT on the profit margin sits in section 50A of the VAT Act 1994, which also names motor vehicles separately. Article 12(3) of the 1995 Order adds the purchase side: you must have taken possession of the goods on a supply on which no VAT was chargeable, or on another margin-scheme sale. gov.uk (VAT margin schemes) puts it plainly: you cannot use a margin scheme for “any item you bought for which you were charged VAT”. Belgium, which follows the EU VAT Directive, keeps its own exclusion list: FPS Finance names new goods, precious metals, precious stones and pearls, renovated goods, goods consumed on first use and goods that cannot be used again in the same state, under article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994. The four-country panel below shows where that changes the answer.
The example is an oak chest of drawers: bought for €450.00, sold for €950.00. Put your own figures in.
Sold at a loss: no margin on this item, so no VAT. In the UK you work item by item: the loss counts as zero and gives you nothing back.
The VAT is inside the margin, not on top of it. That is the mistake this calculator is built to prevent: 20% on this example’s margin of 500 is 100.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 83.33 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €86.78 into €105.00. How to do this across a whole return period — and why France calculates piece by piece by law — is set out in How do you calculate margin VAT?
In the UK the limit you meet first sits on the buying side. Article 12(3) of the 1995 Order requires that you took possession of the piece on a supply on which no VAT was chargeable, or on another margin-scheme sale; gov.uk (VAT margin schemes) excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT. An antique from a dealer who shows VAT on the invoice stays outside the scheme, however old it is.
Restoration does not enter the margin either. gov.uk says you cannot include repairs, parts or accessories in your margin calculation; you reclaim the VAT on them on your VAT return in the normal way. Keep the line between repairing and rebuilding visible all the same: replacing a hinge, rewaxing a top, gluing a leg.
In Belgium, FPS Finance also excludes renovated goods, goods processed so heavily that at the point of sale you can no longer establish that this is the same piece, and goods that can no longer be used in the same state — such as parts taken from an unsalvageable piece.
In the UK, whether antiques fall under the scheme is a matter of UK law: HMRC runs its own margin schemes under section 50A of the VAT Act 1994. Belgium, the Netherlands and France all follow the same EU VAT Directive (2006/112/EC). Each country interprets the rules itself; where that makes a difference for antiques, this page says so. The rate and the calculation method always differ.
Margin across the whole return period. Article 58, § 4 VAT Code and RD no. 53.
Per period by default (global accounting, Uitvoeringsbesluit OB 1968, art. 4c(1)). You can opt out in writing to the inspector, for at least five years.
Legally piece by piece, but globalisation per period is allowed, with no prior election. CGI art. 297 A; BOFiP § 260.
HMRC’s own scheme, outside the EU. Below the registration threshold you pay nothing.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. The hours and materials you put in do not lower your margin — they lower your profit, which is not the same thing.
Buy from a private individual and there is no invoice. In Belgium, according to FPS Finance, without proof of your purchase price no margin can be established, and the full selling price is taxed.
In the UK the cost of a rebuild never enters the margin, and in Belgium and France a renovated piece leaves the scheme altogether. Calling a rebuild a repair helps you in neither.
In the UK you must keep a stockbook that tracks each item sold under the margin scheme individually (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes). That is a condition, not advice.
This is an explanation, not tax advice. Whether the margin scheme is the right choice in your case, and how to enter it in your return, is a question for your accountant.
Yes. In the UK, article 12(2) of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 opens the margin scheme to works of art, antiques and collectors’ items, and article 2 defines antiques as objects more than 100 years old that are not works of art or collectors’ items. Belgium’s FPS Finance names antiques too, under article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
In the UK, yes: the 1995 Order sets no renovation test, and the cost of the work stays out of the margin — gov.uk says repairs and parts cannot be included in the calculation. In Belgium and France the line is sharper: renovated goods are on FPS Finance’s exclusion list, and the French BOFiP treats a renovated or transformed piece as a new product.
No. The margin is the difference between the selling price you ask and the purchase price you paid your supplier. Your hours, materials and transport sit outside it.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin: €500 ÷ 6 = €83.33 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, the same piece comes to €86.78 (€500 × 21/121); in France, also at 20%, to €83.33.
The same question, a different kind of piece. The answer differs more often than you would expect.
Every piece gets its own purchase price, selling price and scheme. Vintro Pro keeps margin goods separate from the rest and works out your margin per return period.
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