Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
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Collectors’ items are a category of their own in the scheme. That sounds more important than it is — and that is good news.
Collectors' items fall under the margin scheme, as a category of their own.
Belgium's tax authority names collectors' items separately as a category the margin scheme applies to, alongside second-hand goods, works of art and antiques.
With collectors’ items the same question keeps coming back: is this second-hand goods or something separate? The answer is that either can be true, and for your VAT it makes no difference.
Belgium’s FPS Finance names four categories on one page: second-hand goods, works of art, collectors’ items and antiques. All four fall under the same scheme, with the same calculation.
In practice that means you do not have to decide whether a piece is strictly a collectors’ item or ordinary second-hand goods. Both routes end in the same place.
What does count is the buying side. 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.
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 collection: bought for €320.00, sold for €780.00. 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?
The exclusion list applies in full. New goods brought to market as collectors’ items stay new goods. And precious metals, precious stones and pearls are excluded, which mostly bites with coins and jewellery.
Pieces damaged beyond any meaning to a collector fall under goods out of use. In practice that is the residue of a bulk purchase.
Whether collectors' items 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.
They do not. Four categories, one scheme, the same formula.
New goods are expressly on the exclusion list.
With coins and jewellery it sits right next to your piece. See the pages on coins and jewellery.
For a collection at one price, Royal Decree no. 53 asks for a register.
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. Belgium's FPS Finance explicitly names collectors' items as a category the margin scheme applies to, alongside second-hand goods, works of art and antiques. The basis is article 58, § 4 of the Belgian VAT Code and Royal Decree no. 53 of 23 December 1994.
Not for your VAT. Both categories sit on the same list and follow the same calculation: the VAT is inside your margin, taken in Belgium across the whole return period.
Yes, in full. New goods, precious metals, precious stones and pearls, renovated goods and goods out of use stay excluded, even when they are collected.
In Belgium, €79.83. The margin is €460, and €460 × 21/121 gives €79.83.
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.