Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
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This type hits the exclusion list harder than most. The word the tax authority uses is “renovated”, and it looks suspiciously like what the market calls refurbished.
Second-hand electronics fall under the margin, until you renew them thoroughly.
Second-hand electronics fall under the margin scheme. Renovated goods are on the exclusion list — and that is exactly the question with refurbished devices.
A used device that still works is tangible movable property that can be used again. For ordinary resale that settles it.
What sets this trade apart is that something usually happens to the device before it is sold on. And the exclusion list names renovated goods explicitly.
The definition of second-hand goods itself speaks of goods usable again “as they are or after repair”. Replacing a failed power supply or fixing a screen therefore does not take a device out of the scheme.
Buy from private individuals, from a business disposal without VAT or from a colleague working under the margin, and there is nothing to deduct. That is exactly what the scheme is for.
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 used amplifier: bought for €90.00, sold for €260.00. 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?
Between repairing and renovating runs the line that can make this type expensive. Renovated goods are excluded, as are goods processed so heavily that at the point of sale you cannot establish they are the same goods. A device rebuilt largely from new parts sits against that line.
Devices bought to be broken and sold as parts fall under goods out of use. And new devices from end-of-line stock are new goods, even if the model is discontinued.
Whether electronics 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 renovated-goods exclusion is not a formality. The further you go, the weaker your position in an audit.
Goods out of use are on the exclusion list.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. Parts and hours lower your profit, not your margin.
If you deducted VAT at purchase, the device is not margin goods. That choice is made at purchase.
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. Belgium's FPS Finance defines second-hand goods as tangible movable property suitable for further use as it is or after repair. A working second-hand device fits that. The scheme sits in article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and in Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
Repairing is fine: the word sits in the definition of second-hand goods itself. Renovating is not: renovated goods are on the exclusion list, as are goods processed so heavily that they can no longer be identified as the same goods at the point of sale.
That depends on how far you go, not on the word on the box. A clean and a new battery sit close to repair; a device largely rebuilt from new parts sits close to the renovated-goods exclusion. Put your own method to your accountant.
In Belgium, €29.50. The margin is €170, and €170 × 21/121 gives €29.50.
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.