Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
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Works of art are named in the scheme in so many words. But in Belgium, since the law of 19 December 2025, there is one way of buying that throws you back out.
Art belongs in the margin scheme — it is even named there separately.
Works of art fall under the margin scheme. Watch the buying side: in Belgium, since the law of 19 December 2025, a purchase at a reduced rate rules the scheme out.
For most types of goods a page like this opens with the question of whether the goods fit the definition at all. For art it does not: in the UK, article 12(2) of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 names works of art literally, alongside antiques, collectors’ items and second-hand goods.
So the question moves to the other end of the transaction. What decides here is not what you sell, but who you bought it from and at which rate.
A painting bought from a private individual, from an heir or at auction carries no deductible VAT. That is exactly what the margin scheme exists for: you pay VAT on your margin instead of on the full selling price.
If you buy from a fellow dealer who sells under the margin themselves, the result is the same. Their invoice shows no deductible VAT and the chain continues.
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 an oil painting: bought for €1,200.00, sold for €2,100.00. 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 900 is 180.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 150.00 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €156.20 into €189.00. 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 the first limit is the definition. Section 21(6) of the VAT Act 1994 lists what counts as a work of art, and section 21(6A) leaves out technical drawings, maps and plans, pictures on hand-decorated manufactured articles and scenery; a print only counts if it was produced from plates executed by hand, without any mechanical or photomechanical process. Buying directly from the artist is a special case: article 12(3)(a)(v) of the 1995 Order allows it, but only under an option you notify to HMRC in writing, which then runs for at least two years (article 12(8)).
In Belgium the limit now also sits with the invoice: the law of 19 December 2025 excludes works of art, collectors’ items and antiques bought at a reduced rate from the margin scheme, transposing an EU rule (Directive (EU) 2022/542). Buying directly from the artist often runs at a reduced rate there.
In the UK, whether art 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 art, 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.
The scheme hangs on the buying side. A gallery invoice with VAT on it is an ordinary purchase with deduction, not a margin piece — even if the work is otherwise identical.
On a €900 margin that is €189 instead of €156.20. In art, where margins are large, that gap runs into tens of euros per piece.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. What you spend on restoration does not enter that subtraction, however illogical that feels.
A margin invoice carries no VAT amount. Put it there anyway and you owe that amount, while your buyer still may not deduct it.
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. In the UK, section 50A(2) of the VAT Act 1994 and article 12(2) of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 name works of art, antiques and collectors’ items alongside second-hand goods, and section 21(6) of the Act defines what a work of art is. Belgium’s FPS Finance names the same categories, under article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
Yes, and that is the typical case. A private individual charges you no VAT, so there is nothing to deduct. You then pay VAT on the difference between your selling price and your purchase price, not on the full selling price.
The Belgian law of 19 December 2025, explained in circular 2026/C/14 of 13 January 2026, excludes works of art, collectors’ items and antiques bought at a reduced rate from the margin scheme. A work bought directly from an artist at a reduced rate can no longer be resold under the margin. FPS Finance had not yet updated its own page on this as of 8 September 2026.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin: €900 ÷ 6 = €150.00 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, €156.20 (€900 × 21/121); charge 21% on top of the margin there and you land on €189, paying almost €33 too much.
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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