Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
With tools the stock comes from a business more often than from a living room. And that changes everything on the buying side.
Second-hand tools fall under the margin, if you bought them without VAT.
Second-hand tools fall under the margin scheme. Bought from a business disposal with VAT on the invoice, it is an ordinary purchase with deduction.
A used drill or an old vice is tangible movable property that can be used again. That clears the tax authority’s test.
What sets this type apart is where the stock comes from. Tools often come from a wound-up business or a disposal — and there is sometimes VAT on that invoice.
Buy from a private individual, from a liquidator without VAT or from a colleague working under the margin, and there is no deductible VAT. That is exactly the situation the scheme exists for.
Old hand tools may additionally count as antiques or collectors’ items. Both categories are named separately, with the same treatment.
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 batch of hand tools: bought for €120.00, sold for €390.00. 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?
If there is VAT on the purchase invoice and you deduct it, it is not margin goods. You then sell with ordinary VAT on the full price. That choice is made at purchase, not at sale.
Tools bought to be broken and sold as parts or scrap fall under goods out of use. And new tools from end-of-line stock are new goods.
Whether tools 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.
If you deducted VAT at purchase, the tools are not margin goods. With business disposals that is the case you meet most often.
Goods out of use are on the exclusion list.
For a batch at one price, Royal Decree no. 53 asks for a register.
Separate bookkeeping, or at least separate columns, is required for margin sales.
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, if you bought them without deductible VAT. Used tools are tangible movable property that can be used again, which is the definition of second-hand goods at Belgium's FPS Finance. The scheme sits in article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and in Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
Then it is an ordinary purchase with deduction, not margin goods. You sell the item with ordinary VAT on the full selling price. That choice is made at the moment of purchase.
If a piece counts as a collectors' item or an antique, those categories are named separately — with the same treatment under the margin scheme. For your bookkeeping nothing changes.
In Belgium, €46.86. The margin is €270, and €270 × 21/121 gives €46.86.
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.