Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Coins sit at the crossing of two categories: collectors’ items on one side, precious metals on the other.
A collectors' coin falls under the margin; precious metal by weight does not.
Coins traded as collectors' items fall under the margin scheme. Coins traded by weight as precious metal are on the exclusion list.
Belgium’s FPS Finance names collectors’ items separately as a category the margin scheme applies to. Coins traded as collectors’ items belong there.
On the same page sits the exclusion of precious metals. For gold and silver coins the two therefore sit right next to each other, and the way you trade decides which applies.
Sell a coin for what it is — year, condition, rarity — and you trade a collectors’ item. That falls under the scheme.
Sell the same coin for what it weighs, at the day’s metal price, and you trade precious metal. That falls outside.
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 coin collection: bought for €260.00, sold for €610.00. 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?
The exclusion of precious metals is named on the tax authority’s page about the margin scheme, between new goods and renovated goods. It applies whatever shape the metal is in.
For investment gold the Belgian VAT Code additionally holds a separate regime, apart from the margin. Gold investment coins may fall under it. That is not a rule of thumb but a question for your accountant, asked before you buy.
Whether coins 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.
The way you trade decides. Selling at the metal price is trade in precious metal.
Separate bookkeeping, or at least separate columns, is required for margin sales.
Investment gold follows its own regime in the Belgian VAT Code. That belongs with your accountant, not with a rule of thumb.
For a collection at one price, Royal Decree no. 53 asks for a register.
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.
As collectors' items, yes. Belgium's FPS Finance explicitly names collectors' items among the categories the margin scheme applies to. But precious metals are on the exclusion list of that same page, so coins traded by weight as metal fall outside.
What you trade. A coin sold for its year, condition or rarity is a collectors' item. The same coin sold at the day's metal price is precious metal.
Investment gold follows its own regime in the Belgian VAT Code, separate from the margin scheme. Whether a particular coin falls under it is a question for your accountant — asked before you buy.
In Belgium, €60.74, if it is a sale of collectors' items. The margin is €350, and €350 × 21/121 gives €60.74.
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.