Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Belgium excludes goods consumed on first use. The UK’s list of excluded goods does not mention wine — and France says bottles from a private seller can go under the margin.
In the UK wine is not on the excluded list; in Belgium it is excluded.
In the UK, gov.uk does not name wine among the goods excluded from the margin scheme. France accepts bottles bought from a private individual. Belgium’s FPS Finance excludes goods consumed on first use; it does not name wine, but in our reading wine is one.
Dealers who buy up an estate sometimes come across a cellar. The question that follows is whether those bottles can be resold under the margin scheme.
In the UK, gov.uk lists what is excluded from the margin schemes: precious metals, investment gold and precious stones, and in most cases anything you were charged VAT on. Wine is not on that list.
France reached a clear answer in rescrit BOI-RES-TVA-000270 of 19 August 2026: a private individual bought bottles from a wine merchant and later resells them in their original state; the dealer’s resale falls under the margin scheme of article 297 A CGI.
Belgium reasons differently. FPS Finance excludes goods consumed on first use, one of the six exclusions it names. A bottle is gone after one use; that it is rare, old or expensive changes nothing there.
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 case of wine: bought for €300.00, sold for €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 600 is 120.00, while in the UK you owe one-sixth, 100.00 — the 16.67% gov.uk quotes. At Belgium’s 21%, the same mistake turns €104.13 into €126.00. 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 Netherlands the Belastingdienst names no exclusion for goods consumed on first use. We could not check what it says about wine specifically; ask your accountant.
If you bought the wine from a merchant who charged you VAT, it falls outside the scheme in every country. The calculator below shows what the margin gives where the scheme does apply.
In the UK, whether wine 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 wine, this page says so. The rate and the calculation method always differ.
FPS Finance excludes goods consumed on first use. It does not name wine; we read it as one.
The Dutch VAT Act (art. 2a(1)(l)) defines second-hand goods as any movable goods that can be used again. Wine is not excluded, but the Act does not say whether an unopened bottle qualifies. We found no case law on it (read on 9 October 2026).
Bottles a private individual bought and resells unchanged: margin scheme, CGI art. 297 A (BOI-RES-TVA-000270).
gov.uk does not list wine among excluded goods. Anything you were charged VAT on usually falls outside.
gov.uk does not list wine as excluded. The exclusion of goods consumed on first use comes from Belgium’s FPS Finance.
Goods consumed on first use are named on Belgium’s exclusion list.
Then it is not margin goods in any country. In the UK, gov.uk excludes any item you were charged VAT on.
Wine carries excise duty alongside VAT. That sits entirely apart from the margin scheme and from this page.
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.
It depends on the country. In the UK, gov.uk does not name wine among the goods excluded from the margin schemes. In France, bottles bought from a private individual and resold in their original state fall under the scheme (rescrit BOI-RES-TVA-000270 of 19 August 2026). In Belgium most likely not: FPS Finance excludes goods consumed on first use. It does not name wine, but in our reading a bottle you drink is such a good.
In the UK and France the same answer as above applies, rare or not. In Belgium age or rarity does not change the exclusion; whether a bottle can be treated there as a collector's item is a question for your accountant, asked before the purchase.
In the UK and France, bottles bought from the private seller can go under the margin alongside the rest of the estate. In Belgium you sell the wine with ordinary VAT on the full selling price. Either way, keep separate bookkeeping or separate columns for the margin sales.
The French rescrit only speaks about wine, and the UK list of excluded goods names no drinks. Belgium’s exclusion is about goods consumed on first use, so drinks fall under it there. Excise goods additionally carry their own rules, independent of VAT.
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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