Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
A watch touches two items on the exclusion list at once: precious metals on one side, renovated goods on the other.
A second-hand watch falls under the margin, as long as you sell it as a watch.
Second-hand watches fall under the margin scheme. Sell the case as precious metal, or rebuild the movement largely from new parts, and the answer changes.
A worn watch is tangible movable property that can be used again. For ordinary resale that settles the question.
What makes watches particular is that they touch two sensitive items at once. A gold case is precious metal, and a full service sits close to renovated goods.
As long as you sell the watch as a watch — to someone who will wear it — you sell second-hand goods. A vintage piece may additionally count as a collectors’ item, a category named separately with the same treatment.
Buy from a private individual or from an estate and there is no deductible VAT. That is exactly the situation the margin scheme exists for.
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 vintage watch: bought for €280.00, sold for €640.00. 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?
Precious metals, precious stones and pearls are named on the exclusion list. A gold case going to a refiner by weight is no longer a watch but precious metal. The same holds for stones taken out of a dial or case.
The second line sits at the bench. A service or a new mainspring is a repair, and repair is written into the definition of second-hand goods. A movement rebuilt largely from new parts sits against the renovated-goods exclusion.
Whether watches 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.
Precious metals are excluded. A sale by weight is trade in precious metal, not in second-hand goods.
The more new parts, the closer you get to the renovated-goods exclusion.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. Parts and hours sit outside it.
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, as long as you sell them as watches. A worn watch is tangible movable property that can be used again, which is the definition of second-hand goods at Belgium's FPS Finance. Vintage pieces may additionally count as collectors' items.
Sold by weight it is precious metal. Precious metals are named on the exclusion list, alongside precious stones and pearls.
A repair does not take a piece out of the scheme: the word sits in the definition of second-hand goods. A movement largely rebuilt from new parts lands on the renovated-goods exclusion. Put your own method to your accountant.
In Belgium, €62.48. The margin is €360, and €360 × 21/121 gives €62.48.
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.