Custom Duties/ Tax on Artworks to Vienna Austria

[Weekender]

Hello there!

Just a quick question, does someone know if there are import duties/ tax / fees to be paid if an artwork is shipped to Vienna Austria from the Japan or USA? Lets say, if i ask the gallery to price the work for around 500USD or Euro equivalent.

Thanks!

[outerborough]

Duties are assessed by the country to which the art is being imported. Most European countries have high duty for things coming from outside the EU, so I would assume Austria does too. You can ask galleries to declare a lesser value for a piece, but sometimes that interferes with insurance, etc., so they might decline. And even if they do it, I'm not sure it always works.

Any Europeans on the board have luck getting around paying duty?

[Weekender]

Thanks outerboroough!

I am in Sydney right now and i think the cap is to tax everything above 900AUD, ill be based in Vienna in the next few months so im worried how much tax would i pay should i decide to purchase from Vienna.

[svenman]

pm katrin to get the scoop on tax in austria - she's our local viennese whirl!

as for tricks to get around the system if tax is applicable - if you are buying from a gallery, i have a trick i can share that usually works for avoiding import duty that works in the uk, so should in theory work in any country that imposes import duty - only if buying from a gallery though - feel free to pm.

[Weekender]

Thank you very much Svenman, would be interested to hear about that trick!

[grotesqueanimal]

I missed this thread, although it seemed addressed directly at me! Thanks to Sven I pm'd Weekender the information a while ago, but I would also like to share this with you.

From non EU-countries only shipments up to 22 Euros are customs-free. I used to pay 20% taxes on everything from overseas until I figured out that with original artwork it is only 10% (does not apply to prints; also for a doll and sculptural stuff that I purchased I had to pay 20%. I maybe could have tried to argue with the customs authorities, but it did not seem worth the hassle).

The best way is to have the gallery/seller note "TARIC Code 9701100000" (this is for original paintings, other stuff has different numbers) on the package, the item description should be something like "original painting, acrylic on wood".
I think this is an international code, but it won't hurt to ask your local customs authorities or google the information.

Also it is of no use to try to cheat the local customs - I have tried that, too. They can ask you to produce all e-mail correspondence, pay-pal invoices, E-bay auction numbers etc. to verify that the purchase and the value noted on the customs forms match. If you do not play along, they can hold the item back as long as they wish, or also calculate a new value which they think is proper.
(Sven’s trick did not work for me, either, but it is cool if it does for others, and you should give it a try).

Also I would not recommend to declare a lesser value (mainly for insurance reasons), and a lot of sellers and galleries refuse that. Although it works best for prints shipped in a tube and declared as cheap posters.

Would love to hear experiences from other European folks!