Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Cleaning and repairing do not take a rug out of the scheme. A rug largely rewoven is another story.
Second-hand and antique rugs fall under the margin scheme.
Second-hand rugs fall under the margin scheme, and antique rugs may additionally count as antiques. In Belgium and France a thorough reweave touches the renovated-goods line.
A used rug 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.
Rugs more than 100 years old may additionally count as antiques, and a tapestry or hanging made by hand from an original design, alone or in an edition of no more than eight, is even a work of art (VAT Act 1994, section 21(6)(e) and (6B)). For your bookkeeping that changes nothing: it stays a margin sale.
Cleaning, repairing fringes or closing a tear is repair. That word sits in the definition of second-hand goods itself, so those jobs do not take a rug out of the scheme.
Buy from a private individual, 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 an antique rug: bought for €550.00, sold for €1,250.00. 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 700 is 140.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 116.67 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €121.49 into €147.00. 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?
In the UK the 1995 Order has no separate exclusion for renovated goods; the reweaving simply stays out of the margin, since gov.uk says repairs and parts cannot be included in the calculation. In Belgium renovated goods are excluded, and France treats a rug whose added material is worth more than the used rug plus the work as a new product. A rug with a large part rewoven comes close there.
Rugs worn beyond use as rugs are no longer suitable for further use, which article 2 asks of second-hand goods. Sell pieces of them as material, or make them into cushion covers, and it is no longer a margin sale: gov.uk’s global accounting guidance names second-hand fabrics turned into cushion covers as goods that are no longer eligible.
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 rugs 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 rugs, 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.
The margin is selling price minus purchase price. Cleaning and repair lower your profit, not your margin.
In the UK the cost never enters the margin; in Belgium and France, the larger the rewoven area, the closer you get to the renovated-goods line.
Without a purchase invoice in your records — which you may make out yourself — and a stockbook entry, your margin cannot be demonstrated (gov.uk, VAT margin schemes).
Bought with VAT, they are outside the scheme in the UK (gov.uk); in Belgium FPS Finance excludes new goods outright.
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 used rug 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. Rugs more than 100 years old may additionally count as antiques. Belgium uses the same definition.
Yes. The definition of second-hand goods itself speaks of goods suitable for further use as they are or after repair. Cleaning and repairing do not take a rug out of the scheme, and their cost stays out of the margin (gov.uk).
In the UK the 1995 Order sets no renovation test, so it can stay in; the reweaving costs stay out of the margin. In Belgium the renovated-goods exclusion comes into play, and France treats a heavily renovated rug as a new product. Put your own method to your accountant.
In the UK, at 20%, the VAT is one-sixth of the margin: €700 ÷ 6 = €116.67 (in pounds the sum works the same way). In Belgium, at 21%, €121.49 (€700 × 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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