Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
One of the types where you buy by the box and sell by the plate. Here the arithmetic matters more than the rule.
Second-hand tableware and glass fall under the margin scheme.
Second-hand tableware and glass fall under the margin scheme. Cutlery and objects of precious metal raise a second question.
A used plate, an old decanter or a set of glasses 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.
The difficulty is not the rule but the bookkeeping. You buy a box, a cabinet or a whole household, and sell dozens of items out of it at widely varying prices.
Old tableware may additionally count as antiques — more than 100 years old, under article 2 of the 1995 Order — or as collectors’ items. Article 12(2) names both separately, with the same treatment.
Buy from private individuals, from an estate or from a colleague working under the margin, and there is no deductible VAT, so the scheme applies.
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 box of tableware: bought for €60.00, sold for €285.00. 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 225 is 45.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 37.50 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €39.05 into €47.25. 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 moment precious metal enters, the question changes. Article 2 of the 1995 Order leaves precious metals out of second-hand goods, and gov.uk lists them among the goods you cannot use a margin scheme for. Solid silver cutlery sold by weight is precious metal and not second-hand goods — see the page on silverware.
Broken or unusable tableware is no longer suitable for further use as it is or after repair, which article 2 asks of second-hand goods; Belgium names goods out of use on its exclusion list. New tableware from end-of-line stock comes with VAT on the invoice, and gov.uk excludes any item you bought for which you were charged VAT, however long the box has been standing.
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 tableware 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 tableware, 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.
A box at one price calls for a record of what you paid. In the UK global accounting is built for this: the margin per VAT period, as long as no single item cost more than £500 (gov.uk). Not a split after the fact.
Precious metals are left out of second-hand goods by article 2 of the 1995 Order, and Belgium names them on its exclusion list.
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 many small sales that really matters.
A margin sale carries no VAT amount, not even at €4 a plate.
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. Used tableware 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. Old tableware may additionally count as antiques or collectors' items. Belgium uses the same definition.
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). A £60 box that sold for £285 in the same period gives a £225 margin and £37.50 of VAT, one-sixth. In Belgium the margin is taken per return period by default: €39.05 at 21%.
That is a different question. Article 2 of the 1995 Order leaves precious metals out of second-hand goods. Sold as utensils it stays second-hand goods; sold by weight you are selling precious metal, which gov.uk excludes from the margin schemes.
Not if you bought it from a business that charged you VAT: gov.uk excludes any such item. In Belgium FPS Finance also puts new goods on its exclusion list, even if the box sat in a warehouse for years.
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.
30 days free, no card number.