Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
The most common margin piece there is. And yet this is exactly where the limit most dealers overlook runs.
Second-hand furniture is the textbook example of margin goods.
Second-hand furniture falls under the margin scheme. A thorough reupholstery or rebuild can take the piece out of it.
A second-hand cabinet, table or chair 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 in a single sentence.
What sets furniture apart from, say, books is that work usually happens to it before it goes back in the window. The UK puts that work outside the margin; Belgium and France can put the whole piece outside the scheme.
Buy from a private individual, from an estate or from a colleague who works under the margin themselves, and you receive no deductible VAT. The margin scheme was made for that situation.
The age of the furniture changes the label, not the answer. A Danish chair from 1960 and a kitchen table from 2015 are second-hand goods, as long as both are used and usable again; a piece more than 100 years old is an antique under article 2 of the 1995 Order. Both go under the same scheme.
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 teak sideboard: bought for €220.00, sold for €620.00. 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 400 is 80.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 66.67 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €69.42 into €84.00. 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 1995 Order has no separate exclusion for renovated goods, but the work never enters the margin: gov.uk (VAT margin schemes) says you cannot include repairs, parts or accessories in the calculation, and you reclaim the VAT on them in the normal way. What you make out of second-hand material is another matter: gov.uk’s global accounting guidance names second-hand fabrics made into cushion covers as goods that are no longer eligible. In Belgium, FPS Finance excludes renovated goods, and an armchair stripped back to the frame and fully reupholstered comes close to that line.
A second case common in this trade: new furniture arriving as end-of-line stock or a showroom model. In the UK, gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT, and HMRC’s manual asks in borderline cases whether the goods have already borne irrecoverable VAT (VATMARG02100). In Belgium, new goods are named on the exclusion list, even when you bought them cheaply.
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 furniture 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 furniture, 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.
Bought from a business that charged you VAT, it is outside the scheme in the UK; in Belgium a never-used piece is new goods. That it came in at a discount changes nothing.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. Materials and hours sit outside it, however large the bill.
Then it is not a margin purchase but an ordinary one with deduction. That is no mistake in itself — but the resale has to follow the same route.
Without proof of purchase your margin cannot be demonstrated. In the UK a stockbook and a purchase invoice for each item are conditions of the scheme (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes); in Belgium, FPS Finance explicitly asks for a purchase register.
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, 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, and article 12(2) opens the margin scheme to them. A second-hand cabinet, table or chair fits without reservation. Belgium uses the same definition, under article 58, § 4 of its VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53.
In the UK, yes: the definition itself speaks of goods usable again as they are or after repair, and the 1995 Order sets no renovation test. The reupholstery costs stay out of the margin, though (gov.uk). In Belgium renovated goods are on the exclusion list, and France treats a renovated piece as a new product; there a full rebuild on a bare frame sits against the line.
Not if you bought it from a business that charged you VAT: in the UK, gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT. In Belgium FPS Finance also puts new goods on its exclusion list. A showroom model or end-of-line piece of that kind is sold with ordinary VAT on the full selling price.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin: €400 ÷ 6 = €66.67 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, €69.42 (€400 × 21/121). Charge 21% on top of the margin and you land on €84 — almost €15 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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