Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Two questions that often get mixed up: may you sell it, and how do you calculate the VAT? Only the second is on this page.
Second-hand sports equipment falls under the margin scheme.
Second-hand sports equipment falls under the margin scheme. Gear that is no longer usable falls outside — and whether you may sell something is a separate question.
A used cycling helmet, a set of skis or a tennis racket is tangible movable property that can be used again. That clears the tax authority’s test.
In this trade the VAT question often gets tangled with the safety question. Those are two separate things: the first is about what you pay, the second about what you may put on the shelf at all.
Buy from private individuals, from a club clear-out without VAT or from a colleague working under the margin, and there is no deductible VAT, so the scheme applies.
An adjustment, a new binding or a sharpened edge is repair work. That word sits in the definition of second-hand goods itself.
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 batch of sports equipment: bought for €200.00, sold for €640.00. 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?
Gear so worn or damaged that it can no longer be used falls under goods out of use — one of the named exclusions. With protective equipment that point arrives sooner than elsewhere.
New gear from end-of-line stock is new goods and named on the exclusion list. Whether you may still resell a particular piece of protective equipment is a product-safety question, entirely separate from VAT.
Whether sports equipment 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.
Two separate obligations. One says nothing about the other.
Goods out of use are on the exclusion list.
For a batch at one price, Royal Decree no. 53 asks for a register.
In Belgium you take the margin across the whole return period. With many small sales that matters.
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.
Yes. Used sports equipment is tangible movable property that can be used again, which is the definition of second-hand goods at Belgium's FPS Finance. The scheme sits in article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and in Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
That is a product-safety question, not a VAT question. This page covers VAT only. What you may or may not put on the shelf is for the competent authority or your trade body.
That falls outside the scheme. The tax authority excludes goods that can no longer be used in the same state, naming goods out of use explicitly.
In Belgium, €76.36. The margin is €440, and €440 × 21/121 gives €76.36.
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.