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 UK test in article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995.
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.
Hand tools more than 100 years old may additionally count as antiques under article 2 of the 1995 Order, a category article 12(2) names separately, with the same treatment.
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 a batch of hand tools: bought for €120.00, sold for €390.00. 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 270 is 54.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 45.00 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €46.86 into €56.70. 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, article 12(3) of the 1995 Order requires that you took possession of the goods on a supply on which no VAT was chargeable, or on another margin-scheme sale, and gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT. If there is VAT on the purchase invoice, you sell with ordinary VAT on the full price. That choice is made at purchase, not at sale.
Tools broken up for parts can stay in the scheme: HMRC lets you sell the parts under global accounting if each was worth less than £500, but not once scrap is melted down and sold as metal (VATMARG03300). Belgium excludes goods out of use outright. New tools from end-of-line stock come with VAT on the invoice and are excluded for that reason.
In the UK, gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT; it does not list new goods as such. In France, goods bought from a private individual fall under the margin even if never used (rescrit BOI-RES-TVA-000270, 19 August 2026). Only Belgium’s FPS Finance names new goods as excluded. End-of-line stock bought from a business that charges you VAT falls outside the scheme in all four countries — because of that VAT, not because it is new.
In the UK, whether tools 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 tools, 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.
Item by item (Wet OB 1968, art. 28b). Per period only if the inspector designates you on request (Uitvoeringsbesluit OB 1968, art. 4c(1)(b)). An antique or collector’s item goes per period by default.
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.
If your supplier charged you VAT, the tools are not margin goods, whether or not you deducted it. With business disposals that is the case you meet most often.
In the UK, eligible goods recycled and sold on as metal are no longer margin goods (VATMARG03300); in Belgium goods out of use are on the exclusion list.
For a batch at one price, the UK has global accounting: the margin per VAT period, as long as no single item cost more than £500 (article 13 of the 1995 Order).
In the UK each margin item goes individually into the stockbook (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes), and items bought with VAT stay out of it.
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 from someone who could not charge VAT (not: a reverse-charge purchase or an import). Used tools are tangible movable property suitable for further use, which is the definition of second-hand goods in article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995, and article 12(2) opens the margin scheme to them. Belgium uses the same definition.
Then it is an ordinary purchase with deduction, not margin goods: gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT. 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, article 12(2) of the 1995 Order names those categories separately — with the same treatment under the margin scheme. gov.uk warns that not all items that can be collected are eligible as collectors' items. For your bookkeeping nothing changes.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin: €270 ÷ 6 = €45.00 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, €46.86 (€270 × 21/121).
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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