Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
A watch touches two limits at once: precious metals on one side and, in Belgium and France, 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 and the answer changes; rebuild the movement largely from new parts and it changes in Belgium and France.
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 once it is sold for its gold, and a full service sits close to what Belgium and France call 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 article 12(2) of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 names 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.
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 vintage watch: bought for €280.00, sold for €640.00. 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 360 is 72.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 60.00 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €62.48 into €75.60. 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 2 of the 1995 Order leaves precious metals and precious stones out of second-hand goods. Between VAT-registered businesses, scrap gold sold at around the value of its gold — VAT Notice 701/21 names watch cases explicitly — falls under the special accounting scheme for gold (section 11.2). A gold case going to a refiner by weight is no longer a watch. Stones taken out of a dial or case are precious stones, excluded as well.
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. The UK sets no renovation test, and the cost of parts and work stays out of the margin (gov.uk). In Belgium and France, a movement rebuilt largely from new parts sits against the renovated-goods line.
In the UK, whether watches 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 watches, 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.
Precious metals are excluded by article 2 of the 1995 Order. A sale by weight is trade in precious metal, and between VAT-registered businesses the special accounting scheme for gold applies (VAT Notice 701/21, section 11.2).
In the UK the cost never enters the margin either way; in Belgium and France, the more new parts, the closer you get to the renovated-goods line.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. Parts and hours sit outside it.
In the UK each margin item goes individually into the stockbook (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes); gold sold by weight does not belong there.
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 suitable for further use, which is the definition of second-hand goods in article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995. Vintage pieces may additionally count as collectors' items or, past 100 years, antiques.
Sold by weight it is precious metal. Article 2 of the 1995 Order leaves precious metals out of second-hand goods, and VAT Notice 701/21 (section 11.2) names watch cases among the scrap gold that falls under the special accounting scheme for gold between VAT-registered businesses.
Yes: the word repair sits in the definition of second-hand goods, and the UK sets no renovation test. The cost of the service stays out of the margin (gov.uk). In Belgium and France, a movement largely rebuilt from new parts can land on the renovated-goods line. Put your own method to your accountant.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin: €360 ÷ 6 = €60.00 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, €62.48 (€360 × 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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