Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
One of the few trades where you buy by the kilo and sell by the piece. The scheme copes with that — your bookkeeping has to as well.
Second-hand clothing is second-hand goods and falls under the margin.
Second-hand and vintage clothing falls under the margin scheme. New clothing from end-of-line stock does not, even from an old collection.
A worn coat 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, and the margin scheme applies.
The difficulty with clothing is not the rule but the arithmetic. You rarely buy one piece: you buy a bale, a batch or a kilo, and sell dozens of items out of it at wildly different prices.
Vintage, second-hand and worn clothing follow the same rule. The age of the garment does not matter, only that it is used and usable again.
Buy from a private individual, a reuse centre or a sorting company without VAT on the invoice, and you get nothing to deduct. That is exactly the situation the margin scheme is meant 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 bale of vintage coats: bought for €150.00, sold for €780.00. 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 630 is 126.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 105.00 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €109.34 into €132.30. 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, gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT, so end-of-line stock from a wholesaler stays out; it does not list new goods as such. Belgium does: new goods are on its exclusion list, and an old collection never worn is new however dusty the box. Where exactly that line runs is set out in Is an unused item second-hand goods?
What you make out of clothing is another matter. gov.uk’s global accounting guidance names second-hand fabrics and trimmings made into cushion covers as goods that are no longer eligible. Belgium also excludes clothing so worn that it can no longer serve as clothing, naming rags and goods out of use explicitly; what goes to a sorter as a cleaning cloth is no longer margin goods there.
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 clothing 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 clothing, 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.
Per period by default (global accounting, Uitvoeringsbesluit OB 1968, art. 4c(1)). You can opt out in writing to the inspector, for at least five years.
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.
With a £150 bale yielding sixty items, that £150 has to be in your records. In the UK global accounting is built for this — bulk, low-value goods, margin per VAT period — as long as no single item cost more than £500 (gov.uk). An estimate after the fact is not.
Bought from a wholesaler who charged you VAT, it is outside the scheme in the UK; in Belgium FPS Finance excludes new goods outright. An old collection that was never worn stays new.
In the UK, global accounting lets you take the margin per VAT period, carrying a negative margin forward (article 13 of the 1995 Order); in Belgium that is the default. With clothing, where some pieces go at a loss, that saves real money.
A margin sale carries no VAT amount, not even on a €12 receipt.
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. 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. A worn garment fits that, and article 12(2) opens the margin scheme to it. Belgium uses the same definition (article 58, § 4 of its VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53).
In the UK, with global accounting: total sales minus total purchases per VAT period, as long as no individual item cost more than £500 (article 13 of the 1995 Order). A £150 bale that sold for £780 in the same period gives a £630 margin and £105 of VAT, one-sixth. In Belgium the margin is taken per return period by default: €109.34 at 21%.
Not if you bought it from a business that charged you VAT: gov.uk excludes any such item. In Belgium FPS Finance also puts new goods on its exclusion list, however old the collection.
In Belgium that falls outside: FPS Finance excludes goods that can no longer be used in the same state, naming rags explicitly. UK law has no separate rule for rags; the test there is whether the goods are suitable for further use as they are or after repair (article 2 of the 1995 Order).
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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