Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Second-hand means of transport are named separately in the scheme. For bicycles the question sits in the workshop, not at the till.
A second-hand bicycle is margin goods — as long as it stays the same bicycle.
Second-hand bicycles fall under the margin scheme. A bicycle you build up from loose parts falls outside it.
Belgium’s FPS Finance names second-hand means of transport separately in the scheme, together with cars, motorcycles, caravans, boats and aircraft. A bicycle is one of them.
The question that really matters for bicycles comes out of the workshop. A second-hand bike shop often buys in bulk, strips some for parts and puts other bikes back on the road with them.
A bicycle you buy from a private individual, fix up and resell is second-hand goods usable again after repair. That is exactly the definition the tax authority uses.
A brake pad, a chain or a new tyre changes nothing there. Repair is written into the definition of second-hand goods.
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 refurbished city bike: bought for €60.00, sold for €210.00. 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?
Two items on the exclusion list hit this trade directly. Goods that can no longer be used in the same state — goods out of use — do not belong in the scheme. A bicycle you buy to strip is not bought as a bicycle.
And goods processed so heavily that at the point of sale you can no longer establish this is the same piece fall outside it too. A bike built from three wrecks is no longer the bike you bought.
Electric bicycles follow the same rule as ordinary ones. A new battery bought and resold separately is new goods.
Whether bicycles 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.
Parts from a stripped bike are no longer a second-hand bicycle. Goods out of use are on the exclusion list.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. A new €18 chain does not lower your margin.
With a batch of ten bikes for one amount, you have to be able to show the split. Royal Decree no. 53 asks for registers, not estimates after the fact.
A bicycle that comes into being out of loose parts is not the goods you bought — so not margin goods.
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 explicitly names second-hand means of transport among the goods the margin scheme applies to. A used bicycle that can be used again, as it is or after repair, falls under it. The basis is article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
Yes. The definition of second-hand goods itself speaks of goods usable again as they are or after repair. New tyres, a new chain or new brake pads do not take the bike out of the scheme.
That falls outside. The tax authority excludes goods processed so heavily that at the point of sale you cannot establish they are the same goods as at purchase, and goods that can no longer be used in the same state.
In Belgium, €26.03. The margin is €150, and €150 × 21/121 gives €26.03. In the Netherlands you land on the same amount; in France on €25.00.
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.