Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Old in the box is not the same as second-hand. But what keeps end-of-line stock out of the scheme is mostly the invoice you bought it on.
End-of-line stock bought from a business with VAT falls outside the scheme.
In the UK, gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT, and end-of-line stock usually comes with VAT. Sell it with ordinary VAT. In Belgium FPS Finance also excludes new goods by name.
This is the confusion that comes back in almost every trade: a box that stood in a warehouse for ten years feels like second-hand. Yet it almost never falls under the margin scheme.
In the UK, gov.uk excludes from the margin schemes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT. End-of-line stock comes from a wholesaler, manufacturer or shop that charges you VAT, so it is out. The same holds in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, and Belgium’s FPS Finance additionally excludes new goods by name.
In the Netherlands and France a never-used item bought from a private individual does count as second-hand — but that is not end-of-line stock. Belgium reasons differently: second-hand goods must be usable again, and what was never used a first time cannot be used again.
A showroom model sits right against the line and is exactly where it gets interesting. Where the line runs and why is set out in Is an unused item second-hand goods?
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 batch of showroom models: bought for €800.00, sold for €1,900.00. 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 1,100 is 220.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 183.33 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €190.91 into €231.00. 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?
Two things do not count: age and price. A 2014 collection that never sold, bought from a business with VAT, stays outside the scheme. And end-of-line stock is cheap because nobody wanted it, not because it was used.
The calculator below is there to show what the scheme would give if it applied. Do not read it as confirmation: on end-of-line stock bought with VAT you pay VAT on the full selling price.
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 end-of-line stock 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 end-of-line stock, 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.
Item by item (Wet OB 1968, art. 28b). Per period only if the inspector designates you on request (Uitvoeringsbesluit OB 1968, art. 4c(1)(b)). An antique or collector’s item goes per period by default.
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.
If the business you bought it from charged you VAT, it is not margin goods, however old the box.
End-of-line stock is cheap because nobody wanted it. That does not make it second-hand.
Separate records, or at least separate columns, are required for margin sales.
On an ordinary purchase with VAT on the invoice you deduct it. That is the upside against ordinary VAT on your sale.
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.
No, if you bought it from a business that charged you VAT: gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT, and the same holds in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Belgium’s FPS Finance also names new goods as excluded, together with precious metals, renovated goods and goods out of use.
Age changes nothing. What counts is the invoice: if VAT was charged, it is not margin goods. In Belgium the definition of second-hand goods also requires that the goods can be used again, and a box that sat in a warehouse for ten years has never been used.
That is the edge case that really matters, and it depends on who sold it to you and whether the piece was used. The full reasoning is in the knowledge base article on unused second-hand goods.
With ordinary VAT on the full selling price. In return you can deduct the VAT on your purchase invoice, which is exactly what a margin sale does not allow.
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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