Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Two routes, one outcome. An ordinary record is second-hand goods, a rare pressing a collectors’ item — and both fall under the scheme.
Second-hand records fall under the margin scheme, whichever way you classify them.
Second-hand records fall under the margin scheme, as second-hand goods or as collectors' items. For your bookkeeping that difference changes nothing.
With records the question often comes up whether a rare pressing is treated differently from a box of ordinary albums. The answer is no, which is good news for your bookkeeping.
In the UK, article 12(2) of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 names both second-hand goods and collectors’ items as goods the scheme applies to. A record falls under one or the other, and the treatment is the same.
A played record is tangible movable property suitable for further use. That clears the test in article 2 of the 1995 Order, whatever the sleeve looks like. A rare pressing is not automatically a collector’s item: section 21(5) of the VAT Act 1994 speaks of pieces of historical, archaeological or similar interest, and gov.uk warns that not all items that can be collected are eligible as collectors’ items.
Buy from a private individual, from an estate or from a colleague working under the margin and there is no deductible VAT. That is exactly what the scheme exists for.
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 crate of records: bought for €80.00, sold for €340.00. 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 260 is 52.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 43.33 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €45.12 into €54.60. 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 records from end-of-line stock come from a supplier who charged you VAT, and gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT. In Belgium new goods sit on the exclusion list in their own right. A reissue still in shrink-wrap is new — even if the album dates from 1972.
Records damaged beyond playing are no longer suitable for further use as they are or after repair, which is what article 2 of the 1995 Order asks of second-hand goods; Belgium names goods out of use on its exclusion list. Sell them as material and it is no longer a margin sale.
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 records 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 records, 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.
An £80 crate yielding forty records calls for a record of what you paid. In the UK global accounting is built for bulk, low-value goods: the margin per VAT period, as long as no single item cost more than £500 (gov.uk). Not a split after the fact.
Bought with VAT, they are outside the scheme in the UK; in Belgium FPS Finance excludes new goods outright. Still in shrink-wrap is new, whatever the year on the sleeve.
In the UK, global accounting lets you take the margin per VAT period, carrying a negative margin forward (article 13 of the 1995 Order); in Belgium that is the default. With records, where many pieces go at thin margins, that adds up.
A margin sale carries no VAT amount, not even at €8 a record.
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. A played record is tangible movable property suitable for further use, which is the definition of second-hand goods in article 2 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995. A truly exceptional pressing may additionally count as a collector’s item, a category article 12(2) names separately. The treatment is the same, and Belgium uses the same categories.
Not for your VAT. Article 12(2) of the 1995 Order opens the same margin scheme to second-hand goods and to collectors' items.
In the UK, with global accounting: total sales minus total purchases per VAT period, as long as no single item cost more than £500 (article 13 of the 1995 Order). An £80 crate that sold for £340 in the same period gives a £260 margin and £43.33 of VAT, one-sixth. In Belgium the margin is taken per return period by default: €45.12 at 21%.
Those fall outside. Bought from a supplier who charged you VAT, they are excluded in the UK (gov.uk), and in Belgium FPS Finance puts new goods on its exclusion list. You sell them with ordinary VAT on the full price, in a separate column of your bookkeeping.
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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