Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
In Belgium three, and each does something different. No proof of the purchase price, no margin, says the FPS Finance.
In Belgium: a purchase register listing every item you want to sell under the margin scheme, a sales register for what goes out, and a comparison register tying purchase and sale together. Together they make the profit margin ascertainable — which is exactly the amount you pay VAT on. According to the Belgian FPS Finance, without proof of the purchase price the margin cannot be established, and the full selling price is taxed.
Three registers, one margin
Register 1
PurchasesEvery item you want to sell under the margin scheme.Register 2
SalesWhat goes out.Register 3
ComparisonTies purchase and sale together: the margin.That margin is what you pay VAT on. Without proof of the purchase price it cannot be established, says the FPS.
Those registers are not in Royal Decree no. 53 itself. The decree only says that you draw up an inventory every year (article 3), keep your margin sales separate in your accounts (article 7) and enter them separately in your receipts journal (article 9). The registers come from the administrative rules the FPS Finance sets under article 10.
The set-up must allow the goods to be checked and must reconcile with your periodic VAT return. The third register is the one that costs most time by hand, and the first place a spreadsheet falls apart.
If the margin scheme falls away you pay VAT on the full selling price instead of on your margin. On a cabinet sold for 600 euros and bought for 200, that is the difference between 69.42 and 104.13 euros of VAT.
A cabinet bought for €200, sold for €600
VAT on your margin€69.42
Margin scheme lost: VAT on the full price€104.13
The difference: €34.71.
Its own number, the purchase date, the purchase price, who sold it to you, a description of the piece, and later the sale date and selling price. That is the core that returns in all four countries. On top of it each country asks its own: the UK wants purchase and sale on the same row, France wants the method of payment.
In Belgium seven years for your VAT records — brought back from ten to seven by the law of 18 December 2025. In the Netherlands seven years. In France ten years in practice: invoices and an electronic register ten years, a paper livre de police five years after it is closed. In the UK six years (VATA 1994 Sch. 11 para 6(3)). For a piece that stays in stock longer, HMRC advises keeping the purchase records until it is sold: without them, no margin.
Vintro Pro keeps, per piece, what you paid, when, and where it came from. Your stock list and your margin VAT build themselves while you work.
30 days free, no card number.