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Special arrangements for second-hand goods, works of art, collectors’ items and antiques EU VAT case law

9 cases of the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union on this point of VAT law, from 2011 to 2025.

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Under each case, what the Court decided, from its summary. The summaries are AI-generated and are not official documents: open the case for the Court’s own text.

C-433/24 Galerie Karsten Greve

Judgment · 1 August 2025 · France

Margin scheme where the artist sells through a company

The Court held that supplies to a taxable dealer by a creator or successors in title acting through a legal person do fall within Article 316(1)(b), so the dealer may opt for the margin scheme. Two conditions apply: the supply must be attributable to the creator or successors in title, which is presumed where they set up the legal person to market the creator's works, and it must be the first introduction of the works onto the EU market, with no earlier supply subject to VAT. Galleries and dealers buying from artists' marketing companies, studios or estate vehicles can now opt for the margin scheme on resale, and an assessment or dispute resting on the corporate form alone no longer stands. Relevant to French assessments and to the equivalent Article 103 reduced-rate wording.

C-180/22 Mensing II

Judgment · 13 July 2023 · Germany

Margin scheme, acquisition VAT and the profit margin

The acquisition VAT forms part of the taxable amount. "Purchase price" in Article 312(2) covers only what the dealer pays his supplier, not tax paid to the Treasury, and the VAT to be deducted under Article 315 is that on the sale itself. Fiscal neutrality and the aim of preventing double taxation cannot override clear wording, even though domestic purchases and self-imports (Article 317, second paragraph) are treated more favourably. Only the EU legislature can change this. Art and antiques dealers using the margin scheme for works acquired cross-border from creators or their successors face a higher taxable amount than on equivalent domestic purchases or own imports, because acquisition VAT is neither deductible nor a margin reduction.

C-365/22 État belge (VAT – Vehicles sold for parts)

Judgment · 17 May 2023 · Belgium

Margin scheme for end-of-life vehicles sold for parts

Such vehicles are second-hand goods, and eligible for the margin scheme, provided two conditions are met: they still contain parts retaining the functionalities they had when new, so those parts can be reused as they are or after repair, and it is established that the vehicles remained in the same economic cycle through that reuse. A vehicle sold simply to be scrapped or transformed into another object does not qualify. The national court must assess objective circumstances of the resale. Vehicle dismantlers, salvage traders and insurers' disposal channels can apply the margin scheme to whole write-offs sold on for parts, not only to parts they have themselves removed (Sjelle Autogenbrug).

C-264/17 Mensing

Judgment · 29 November 2018 · Germany

Margin scheme for works of art acquired intra-Community from the artist

The option in Article 316(1)(b) is autonomous and additional to Article 314, so Member States cannot make it conditional on the Article 314 categories. The margin scheme is therefore available on resale of works of art acquired from the creator or successors in title via an exempt intra-Community supply. But a dealer invoking the Directive directly takes the scheme on the Directive's terms. He cannot combine it with deduction of the acquisition VAT precluded by Article 322(b), even if that provision is untransposed. Art dealers, galleries and auction operators buying directly from artists or their heirs in other Member States can rely on Article 316(1)(b) to apply the margin scheme on resale, notwithstanding national rules restricting it to domestic input supplies.

C-154/17 E LATS

Judgment · 11 July 2018 · Latvia

Margin scheme and second-hand goods containing precious metals

Second-hand goods do not include used goods containing precious metals or precious stones where the goods can no longer perform their initial function and retain only the functionality inherent in the metals or stones. The item must have had, and kept, a function other than that inherent in its component materials and be usable as it is or after repair. This is for the national court to assess on all objective circumstances. Intention is, save exceptionally, irrelevant. For pawnbrokers, scrap and bullion dealers and jewellery traders relying on the margin scheme, the line runs between resales of wearable or repairable items and resales of material for recovery.

C-624/15 Litdana

Judgment · 18 May 2017 · Lithuania

Good faith and the second-hand margin scheme

Article 314 precludes refusal in those circumstances, unless the authorities establish that the taxable person did not act in good faith or failed to take every reasonable measure in his power to satisfy himself that he was not participating in tax evasion. The double reference is not obviously such as to arouse the suspicions of a prudent trader who is no VAT expert. Whether good faith existed is for the national court.

C-471/15 Sjelle Autogenbrug

Judgment · 18 January 2017 · Denmark

Margin scheme for parts salvaged from end-of-life vehicles

Such parts are second-hand goods within the meaning of Article 311(1)(1). It is enough that the property is movable tangible property retaining the functionalities it had when new and reusable as it is or after repair. Separation from the item in which it was incorporated does not matter, and there is no requirement that the goods purchased retain their identity as the goods sold. Practical difficulty in allocating a purchase price to each part cannot exclude a category of dealer. Article 318 global margin accounting is available to Member States. Vehicle dismantlers and reuse operators buying from private individuals can apply the margin scheme to salvaged parts, avoiding double taxation where no input VAT was deductible.

C-160/11 Bawaria Motors

Judgment · 19 July 2012 · Poland

Margin scheme where the previous supplier had only partial input VAT deduction

The margin scheme is not available on such a resale. Article 314 lists exhaustively and must be construed narrowly. The exemption in Article 136(b) covers only goods on whose acquisition VAT was not deductible at all. A national restriction limiting the deductible amount is not non-deductibility. What the listed cases share is that the supplier bore the input tax in full. Resulting partial double taxation is for the national legislature to remedy, not a ground for a different reading. For motor dealers and other second-hand goods traders what decides the point is the previous owner's deduction position, not merely whether the incoming invoice is marked exempt.

C-203/10 Auto Nikolovi

Judgment · 3 March 2011 · Bulgaria

Margin scheme and goods imported by the dealer himself

The margin scheme does not apply to supplies of goods such as second-hand vehicle parts which the dealer himself imported into the EU under the normal scheme. Supply and importation are distinct, and the right to deduct import VAT removes any double taxation. Deferral of deduction under Article 320 is confined to imported works of art, collectors' items and antiques, where the dealer has a genuine option. Absent that option, no fraud risk justifies departing from immediate deduction. All three provisions have direct effect. A trader in second-hand goods importing from outside the EU applies the normal scheme to those goods and deducts the import VAT immediately under Articles 167 and 168, whether or not the goods qualify as second-hand.

Related topics

Margin scheme · Taxable dealers · Intra-Community supply · Right of deduction · Exemptions · Direct effect