# Tax classes: what each work is for VAT

> A work's tax class says what it is in the eyes of tax law — an original artwork, a screenprint, a photograph, a print, a book, merchandise — and with tax assistance turned on it decides the work's VAT rate. How WrkLst suggests a class, how you confirm it for one work or many at once, how editions follow their class, and what the margin scheme needs to know about where a work came from.

Source: https://support.wrklst.art/works/tax-classes-what-each-work-is-for-vat
Language: en

**A work's tax class says what it is in the eyes of tax law — an original artwork, a screenprint, a photograph, a print, a book, merchandise. With tax assistance turned on, it decides the work's VAT rate. WrkLst suggests a class for every work; you confirm it where it matters, for one work or for many at once.** This article describes WrkLst 10.

## Why it matters

The same price can carry different VAT depending on what the work is. In Germany an original painting, drawing, hand-pulled print or sculpture is taxed at 7 %, while a screenprint, an artist's photograph, a print or a poster is taxed at 19 %; books and catalogues are back at 7 %. In the UK books are zero-rated, and whether a work counts as a work of art, an antique or a collector's piece decides where the margin scheme can be used. In the US the class rarely changes the sales tax on art, so a business based only in the US is not asked for it.

Tax classes come with tax assistance; see [Tax assistance: VAT and sales tax suggested on every sale](/holds-sales/tax-assistance-vat-and-sales-tax-suggested-on-every-sale).

## The classes

* **Original artwork (painting, drawing, hand-pulled print, sculpture)** — made entirely by the artist's hand: paintings, drawings, pastels and collages; prints pulled by hand from plates or blocks, such as etchings, woodcuts and lithographs; original sculpture and up to 8 casts. In Germany 7 %.
* **Screenprint** — an artistic screenprint, signed and numbered or not. In Germany always the full rate of 19 %.
* **Artist's photograph (signed, edition of up to 30)** — a photograph printed by the artist or under their supervision, signed, unique or in an edition of up to 30. In Germany 19 %.
* **Other artistic work (tapestry, ceramics, enamel)** — a hand-woven tapestry, a signed unique ceramic, or an enamel on copper (up to 8). In Germany 19 %.
* **Collector's piece** — of historical or scientific interest, historic photographs included. In Germany 7 %.
* **Antique (over 100 years old)** — in Germany 19 %.
* **Print or reproduction (poster, offset, giclée)** — a poster, a reproduction, an offset, giclée or digital print, a postcard. In Germany 19 %.
* **Book or catalogue** — a book, or an exhibition catalogue in book form. In Germany 7 %, in the UK 0 %.
* **E-book** — an electronic book.
* **Merchandise and other goods** — merchandise and everything else you can hold, such as a tote bag. In Germany 19 %.
* **Clothing** — clothing and shoes, such as a t-shirt.
* **Hiring out a work**.
* **Service (installation, framing, consulting)** — installation, framing as a service, advice, a commission or a loan fee. Where a service is taxed depends on who buys it and where it is performed.

## Suggested, or confirmed

WrkLst suggests a class from the work's type. A painting or a sculpture that is not part of an edition counts as **Original artwork (painting, drawing, hand-pulled print, sculpture)** without asking. Every other work — any edition, a work on paper, a photograph, a video, an installation, mixed media, a type of your own — gets the likeliest class as a suggestion: **Artist's photograph (signed, edition of up to 30)** for photography, **Print or reproduction (poster, offset, giclée)** for editions on paper, **Merchandise and other goods** for the rest.

A suggestion holds nothing up as long as every class it could be gives the same rate. Where another class would give a different rate — a work on paper that could be an etching at 7 % or a print at 19 %, say — the sale's **Tax** section asks you to confirm the class before its invoice can be issued, and your website does not sell the work online until the class is confirmed.

## Many works at once

Settings › Tax › **Works that need a tax class** groups every work whose class is only a suggestion by type and edition — *Photography, editions · 24 works · 3 for sale on your website · suggested: Artist's photograph (signed, edition of up to 30)*. Choose the class and **Set for these 24 works**, or choose **Always for Photography editions** to make it a rule that also answers the works still to come. **Your rules** lists them, each with a bin to remove it. Below, **Products in your shop** lists the products of your own website shop with the rate they were charged at so far — *Charged so far: 7%* — so you can choose each one's class — or choose it on the product itself, see [Website settings: hosting, look, enquiries and legal pages](/website/website-settings-hosting-look-enquiries-and-legal-pages). Before tax assistance can be turned on, every work and product for sale on your website needs its class.

To set the class of a selection of works, put them in the basket and choose **Edit works → Multi-edit**: its **Tax** section offers **Tax class** and **Sold as**, and for a business in Singapore **Customs status (Singapore)**. See [Editing and Multi-Editing](/works/editing-and-multi_editing).

## On a work

Open the work and choose **Edit**. The **Tax** section — *What this work is for VAT, and how you acquired it* — shows the **Tax class**, with the legal test of the chosen class as its help. While nothing is chosen it reads, for example, *Not chosen: suggested Print or reproduction (poster, offset, giclée)*; choosing a class confirms it. **Sold as** decides between **Regular VAT** and the **Margin scheme** for this work, or follows your account with **As set for the account**. For a business in Singapore, **Customs status (Singapore)** — only for works kept in a Free Trade Zone or Zero-GST warehouse — says whether the work **Came from abroad, import GST not paid**, or has **Import GST paid, or bought or made in Singapore**; see [Works under customs control](/holds-sales/tax-assistance-by-country-what-wrklst-covers-where-you-sell-from#works-under-customs-control).

The section is there for people whose role includes **Accounting (GoBD invoicing, DATEV export)**, once tax assistance is being set up or is on for a business outside the US.

### Editions

An edition's class is set once, on the edition's first work, and every copy follows it: *Every copy of this edition follows this class unless a copy sets its own.* A copy names the work it follows; choose a class on a copy only where that copy is different. See [Create and Manage Editions](/works/editions).

## The margin scheme: where a work came from

Under the margin scheme you pay VAT only on your margin — the price minus what you paid — and the invoice shows none. Whether a work qualifies depends on how you acquired it, so the **Tax** section asks under **How you acquired it**:

* **Who you acquired it from** — **A private person**, **The artist or their heirs, without a VAT number**, **The artist or their heirs, with a VAT number**, **A dealer selling under the margin scheme**, **A business that charged VAT**, **We imported it ourselves**, **Consigned to us, sold in our name** or **Consigned to us, sold for the consignor**. Until you choose, WrkLst works it out from the consignment or from the contact the work was acquired from, and shows what it found.
* **Where it was when you acquired it** — a work you brought into the country yourself counts as an import, whoever sold it to you.
* For a consigned work, **The consignor is** — taken from the consignment's contact — and, for a UK business, **Your commission (UK)**: **Deducted from the payout** or **Invoiced to the consignor**.
* **VAT the seller charged** — in Austria it also decides whether a gallery that is no reseller charges 13 % — and, for your own imports, the **Customs value** and the **Import VAT paid** from the import papers. These amounts are shown to people who may see a work's values.

What you paid is the work's **Acquisition price** under **Acquisition**. In Germany the margin scheme is open to works bought from private sellers, from artists without a VAT number and from dealers who sell under the margin scheme, and to consigned works whose consignor is one of these — not to works bought from a VAT-registered artist or from a business that charged VAT. In the UK the class counts as well: works of art, antiques and collector's pieces you imported yourself, and works of art bought from a VAT-registered artist, qualify only if you told HMRC you use that option, which Settings › Tax asks. In Austria the same details decide whether a gallery that is no reseller charges 13 % on an original — see [A gallery that is no reseller](/holds-sales/tax-assistance-by-country-what-wrklst-covers-where-you-sell-from#a-gallery-that-is-no-reseller). In Singapore the Gross Margin Scheme takes only works bought in Singapore from private sellers or from dealers who sold them under the scheme — see [The Gross Margin Scheme](/holds-sales/tax-assistance-by-country-what-wrklst-covers-where-you-sell-from#the-gross-margin-scheme). When something the margin scheme needs is missing — the purchase price, say — the sale's **Tax** section tells you what to enter on the work.

A work **Consigned to us, sold for the consignor** is not your own sale: the buyer's invoice is the consignor's, and your sale is your commission, billed to the consignor as a line of its own.

## Related articles

* [Tax assistance: VAT and sales tax suggested on every sale](/holds-sales/tax-assistance-vat-and-sales-tax-suggested-on-every-sale)
* [Create and Manage Editions](/works/editions)
* [Editing and Multi-Editing](/works/editing-and-multi_editing)
* [Consignments](/consignments/consignments)
* [Website settings: hosting, look, enquiries and legal pages](/website/website-settings-hosting-look-enquiries-and-legal-pages)