Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
New books carry a reduced rate. For second-hand books that creates a confusion that can cost you money.
A second-hand book is second-hand goods, so it falls under the margin.
Second-hand books fall under the margin scheme. The reduced rate for new books plays no part — unless you bought at that rate yourself.
Books are the type dealers most often attach the wrong rate to. New books carry a reduced VAT rate in Belgium, and that sticks in the mind.
For a second-hand book that rate does not come into play. You are not selling a book with a rate on it, you are selling a margin with a rate on it — and that is the standard rate.
A book bought from a private individual, from an estate or at a sale is tangible movable property that can be used again. That is the whole test, and books pass it without argument.
Rare and old books sit in the same scheme by another route: the tax authority also names collectors’ items and antiques. For your bookkeeping that makes no difference.
Belgium’s FPS Finance defines second-hand goods as “tangible movable property that is suitable for further use as it is or after repair”. Excluded are, among others, new goods, precious metals, precious stones and pearls, renovated goods, goods that are consumed on first use, and goods that cannot be used again in the same state.
That is the whole test, and it is a test about the goods, not about your trade. Alongside second-hand goods, FPS Finance explicitly names works of art, collectors’ items, antiques and second-hand means of transport. The scheme sits in article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and is worked out in Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994. This page describes the Belgian scheme; the four-country panel below shows where the Dutch, French and UK rules diverge.
The example is a box of books: bought for €40.00, sold for €190.00. Put your own figures in.
Sold at a loss: there is no margin, so no VAT is due. A negative margin does not give you anything back either.
The VAT is inside the margin, not on top of it. That is the mistake this calculator is built to prevent: 21% on a €400 margin is €84, while you owe €69.42. 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?
There is one case where the reduced rate does matter, and it sits on the buying side. Since 1 January 2026 the Belgian law of 19 December 2025 excludes goods bought at a reduced rate from the margin scheme. End-of-line stock of new books bought from a publisher at the reduced rate cannot be resold under the margin.
Beyond that the ordinary exclusions apply. New books are new goods. Books damaged beyond use as books fall under goods that are out of use and do not belong in the scheme.
Whether books fall under the scheme is answered the same way in all four countries: it is European law. The rate and the calculation method are not.
Margin across the whole return period. Article 58, § 4 VAT Code and RD no. 53.
Globalisation scheme or individual method. Wet OB 1968, article 28b onwards.
Legally piece by piece. Globalisation is an option there, not the default. CGI art. 297 A.
HMRC’s own scheme, outside the EU. Below the registration threshold you pay nothing.
The rate on a new book says nothing about the VAT on your margin. On a margin sale you use the standard rate.
In Belgium you take the margin across the whole return period. With books, where you often buy a box at once and sell piece by piece, that really matters.
Buy a box for €40 and sell twenty books out of it, and you have to be able to account for that €40. Without a register the tax authority cannot follow your margin.
A margin invoice carries no VAT amount. That holds for a €4 receipt too.
Written on 8 September 2026. The scheme, the definition of second-hand goods and the exclusions were measured on 8 September 2026 at Belgium’s FPS Finance, Regeling van belastingheffing over de marge, which names article 58, § 4 of the VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994 as its basis. Since 1 January 2026 the law of 19 December 2025 excludes goods bought at a reduced rate from the margin scheme — explained in circular 2026/C/14 of 13 January 2026, measured via eur-lex.europa.eu on 31 August 2026. FPS Finance has not yet updated its own page on that point — re-checked on 10 September 2026.
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. A second-hand book is tangible movable property that can be used again, which is the definition Belgium's FPS Finance gives of second-hand goods. The scheme sits in article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and in Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
No. On a margin sale the taxable base is your margin, not the book, and the standard rate applies to it. The reduced rate for new books is separate.
No, for two reasons. New goods are on the tax authority's exclusion list. And since 1 January 2026 the Belgian law of 19 December 2025 expressly excludes goods bought at a reduced rate from the scheme.
In Belgium you take the margin per return period: all purchases in the period against all sales. A €40 box that sold for €190 in the same period gives a €150 margin and €26.03 of VAT. In France the legal default is piece by piece, and such a box works out differently there.
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.
Free up to 10 pieces, no card number and no end date.