Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
One of the few types where the answer is short. Precious metals are named on the exclusion list.
Gold as material does not fall under the margin scheme.
Belgium's tax authority expressly excludes precious metals from the margin scheme. A gold piece sold as jewellery is another matter — that stays second-hand goods.
On Belgium’s exclusion list one line settles this whole type of goods: precious metals, precious stones and pearls cannot fall under the margin scheme.
That is not an edge case or an interpretation. It sits on the same page where FPS Finance explains the scheme, between new goods and renovated goods.
The line runs along what you sell, not along who you are. Buy and sell gold by the gram and you trade in precious metal, and the margin scheme is not in play.
Sell a gold ring or chain to someone who will wear it and you sell second-hand goods. That is set out on the jewellery page, because there the line cuts straight through a single transaction.
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 gold bracelet, sold as jewellery: bought for €400.00, sold for €750.00. 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?
The exclusion is not arbitrary. Precious metal is fungible: a gram of gold is a gram of gold, wherever it came from. The margin scheme rests on the opposite — it assumes that at the point of sale you can still show this is the same piece you bought.
For investment gold the Belgian VAT Code additionally holds a separate regime, apart from the margin. That falls outside this page; put it to your accountant before treating a purchase that way.
The calculator below is for the case that does fall under the margin: a gold piece resold as jewellery.
Whether gold 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.
A sale by weight to a refiner is trade in precious metal. The tax authority excludes it by name.
A business dealing in both jewellery and scrap gold has two VAT treatments side by side. Separate bookkeeping or separate columns are required for margin sales.
Precious stones and pearls sit next to precious metals on the same exclusion list.
Investment gold follows its own regime in the Belgian VAT Code. That is a question for your accountant, not for a rule of thumb.
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.
As material, no. Belgium's FPS Finance expressly names precious metals, precious stones and pearls among the goods the margin scheme cannot be applied to. A gold piece resold as jewellery is second-hand goods and does fall under it.
No. Buying and selling by weight is trade in precious metal. The exclusion of precious metals sits on the tax authority's page about the margin scheme, next to the exclusion of new and renovated goods.
What you sell. A ring a customer will wear is tangible movable property being used again: second-hand goods. The same ring going to a refiner by weight is precious metal. Same ring, two treatments.
It follows its own regime in the Belgian VAT Code, separate from the margin scheme. This page does not cover it. Put your situation to your accountant before treating a purchase or sale that way.
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.