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 fall outside, in the UK as in Belgium.
In the UK, section 21(5) of the VAT Act 1994 counts collector’s pieces of numismatic interest among collectors’ items, and gov.uk says plainly that collectors’ items are stamps, coins and currency and other pieces of scientific, historical or archaeological interest.
Article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 also leaves precious metals out of second-hand goods, and investment gold coins out of collectors’ items. 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.
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 coin collection: bought for €260.00, sold for €610.00. 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 350 is 70.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 58.33 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €60.74 into €73.50. 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?
HMRC draws the line in its manual: gold coins bought and sold as collectors’ items are eligible as items of numismatic interest, but a gold coin sold for less than the open market value of its gold counts as precious metal, and investment gold coins are not eligible at all (VATMARG13750). Belgium excludes precious metals by name. With coins, what you trade decides: a coin sold for its year, condition or rarity is a collector’s item, the same coin sold by weight at the day’s metal price is precious metal.
For investment gold the UK has its own rules, apart from the margin; VAT Notice 701/21A lists the coins that count as investment gold. That is not a rule of thumb but a question for your accountant, asked before you buy.
In the UK, whether coins 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 coins, 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 way you trade decides. In the UK a gold coin sold below the open market value of its gold counts as precious metal (VATMARG13750).
In the UK each margin item goes individually into the stockbook (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes); bullion coins do not belong there.
Investment gold coins are not eligible for the margin scheme (VATMARG13750); VAT Notice 701/21A lists them. That belongs with your accountant, not with a rule of thumb.
For a collection at one price, the UK lets you split it and sell the coins under global accounting, as long as no single item cost more than £500 (gov.uk).
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. In the UK, collectors' items include pieces of numismatic interest (section 21(5) of the VAT Act 1994), and article 12(2) of the 1995 Order opens the margin scheme to them. But a gold coin sold below the value of its gold counts as precious metal, and investment gold coins are not eligible (VATMARG13750). Belgium excludes precious metals too.
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.
They are not eligible for the margin scheme: article 2 of the 1995 Order leaves investment gold coins out of collectors' items, and HMRC's manual says the same (VATMARG13750). Whether a particular coin counts as investment gold is a question for your accountant — asked before you buy.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin, if it is a sale of collectors' items: €350 ÷ 6 = €58.33 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, €60.74 (€350 × 21/121).
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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