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 tax authority’s test, 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.
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 bale of vintage coats: bought for €150.00, sold for €780.00. 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?
New goods are on the exclusion list. End-of-line stock never worn, from an old collection, is new however dusty the box. Where exactly that line runs is set out in Is an unused item second-hand goods?
Also excluded: clothing so worn or damaged that it can no longer serve as clothing. The tax authority names rags and goods out of use explicitly. What goes to a sorter as a cleaning cloth is no longer margin goods.
Whether clothing 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.
With a €150 bale yielding sixty items, that €150 has to be in your register. Royal Decree no. 53 asks for registers, not estimates after the fact.
New goods are excluded. An old collection that was never worn stays new.
In Belgium you take the margin across the whole return period. 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.
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. Belgium's FPS Finance defines second-hand goods as tangible movable property suitable for further use as it is or after repair. A worn garment fits that. The scheme sits in article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and in Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
In Belgium you take the margin per return period: all purchases against all sales. A €150 bale that sold for €780 in the same period gives a €630 margin and €109.34 of VAT. In France the legal default is piece by piece.
No. New goods are expressly on the tax authority's exclusion list. A never-worn garment from end-of-line stock is new goods, however old the collection.
That falls outside the scheme. The tax authority excludes goods that can no longer be used in the same state, naming rags and goods out of use explicitly.
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.