Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
One of the few types where the answer is short. UK law leaves precious metals out of second-hand goods, and Belgium excludes them by name.
Gold as material does not fall under the margin scheme.
In the UK as in Belgium, precious metals are excluded from the margin scheme. A gold piece sold as jewellery is another matter — that stays second-hand goods.
In the UK one line of article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 settles this whole type of goods: second-hand goods are tangible movable property “other than precious metals and precious stones”. gov.uk (VAT margin schemes) lists precious metals, investment gold and precious stones among the goods you cannot use a margin scheme for.
That is not an edge case or an interpretation. Between VAT-registered businesses, gold sold at no more than about the value of the gold in it — scrap, broken jewellery, watch cases — falls under the special accounting scheme for gold instead (VAT Notice 701/21, section 11.2). Belgium’s FPS Finance likewise excludes precious metals, precious stones and pearls.
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.
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 gold bracelet, sold as jewellery: bought for €400.00, sold for €750.00. 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 350 is 70.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 58.33 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €60.74 into €73.50. 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 reaches gold coins too. HMRC’s manual says gold coins bought and sold as collectors’ items can be eligible as items of numismatic interest, but a gold coin sold for less than the open market value of its gold counts as precious metal, and investment gold coins are not eligible at all (VATMARG13750). Article 2 of the 1995 Order already leaves investment gold coins out of collectors’ items.
For investment gold the UK additionally has its own rules, apart from the margin (VAT Notice 701/21). 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.
In the UK, whether gold 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 gold, 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.
A sale by weight to a refiner is trade in precious metal. gov.uk excludes precious metals by name, and between VAT-registered businesses the special accounting scheme for gold applies (VAT Notice 701/21, section 11.2).
A business dealing in both jewellery and scrap gold has two VAT treatments side by side. In the UK every margin item goes individually into the stockbook (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes); the scrap does not belong there.
Precious stones sit next to precious metals in article 2 of the 1995 Order; Belgium adds pearls.
gov.uk names investment gold separately among the goods you cannot use a margin scheme for, and it has its own rules (VAT Notice 701/21). That is a question for your accountant, not for a rule of thumb.
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. Article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 leaves precious metals and precious stones out of second-hand goods, and gov.uk lists precious metals and investment gold among the goods you cannot use a margin scheme for. Belgium’s FPS Finance excludes them too. 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. Between VAT-registered businesses it falls under the special accounting scheme for gold, which expressly covers scrap and broken jewellery sold at around the value of the gold (VAT Notice 701/21, section 11.2).
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 rules, separate from the margin scheme (in the UK, VAT Notice 701/21; gov.uk names investment gold among the exclusions). 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.
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