Vintro Pro
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Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
The exclusion list names goods that are consumed on first use. For wine that is not a theoretical category.
Wine is consumed on first use, so it falls outside the scheme.
Belgium's tax authority excludes goods that are consumed on first use. Wine is one of them. The bottle is not second-hand goods, even out of an old cellar.
Dealers who buy up an estate sometimes come across a cellar. The question that follows is whether those bottles can be resold as second-hand goods under the margin scheme.
The answer sits on the exclusion list, and it is one of the four items named there: goods that are consumed on first use.
The definition of second-hand goods turns on reuse: tangible movable property that can be used again, as it is or after repair. A bottle of wine is gone after one use.
That a bottle is rare, old or expensive changes nothing. The exclusion looks at what happens to the goods when they are used, not at the price.
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 case of wine: bought for €300.00, sold for €900.00. 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?
There is one edge case the conversation usually lands on: a bottle traded as a collector’s item rather than to be drunk. Collectors’ items are named separately as a category that does fall under the scheme. Whether a particular bottle qualifies is not a rule of thumb but a question for your accountant — and one you ask before buying.
The calculator below is there for completeness, to show what the scheme would give if it applied. Do not read it as confirmation that it does.
Whether wine 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.
Goods consumed on first use are named on the exclusion list.
The scheme asks whether goods can be used again, not how old they are.
Collectors' items are their own category with their own conditions. That is a question for your accountant, asked before you buy.
Wine carries excise duty alongside VAT. That sits entirely apart from the margin scheme and from this page.
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.
No. Belgium's FPS Finance excludes goods that are consumed on first use. Wine is among them: a bottle is gone after one use and cannot be used again in the same state, which is exactly what the definition of second-hand goods requires.
Age or rarity does not change the exclusion. The tax authority looks at what happens to the goods when used. Whether a bottle can be treated as a collector's item is a question for your accountant, asked before the purchase.
You sell the wine with ordinary VAT on the full selling price, and the rest of the estate follows its own scheme. Two flows side by side, with separate bookkeeping or separate columns for the margin sales.
The exclusion is about goods consumed on first use, not about wine in particular. Drinks fall under it. 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.
Free up to 10 pieces, no card number and no end date.