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• Issue #267
• Article

By Alex Novak

Germany has announced a reduction in the VAT rate on artwork sales from 19% to 7%. This change, set to take effect in January 2025, marks a pivotal shift in policy aimed at bolstering many galleries and art dealers throughout the country. This will also make it easier on German auction houses and art fairs and their clients, as well as on international dealers selling to clients in Germany. Unfortunately, unlike in many other countries, Germany's actions do not include photography.

According to Galerie Daniel Blau's Virginie Dabzat, "The current VAT reduction for the art trade restores the status quo from before 2014, which unfortunately did not provide for the application of reduced VAT for photography at that time either. The status of artistic photography will therefore not change and will remain at 19%. As you probably know, this is due to the customs tariff regulations, which do not categorise photography as "handmade" works. In order to achieve an improvement here too, the customs tariff would first have to be changed."

The initiative reverses a decision made in 2014 when the tax benefit was removed for art dealers following an EU directive. Currently, only direct sales made by artists are eligible for the reduced, 7% rate. As of next year, this rate will be extended to art gallery sales, as well. This follows similar action by French legislators earlier this year, after the EU introduced this possibility in 2022. However the French version includes photography.

The Federal Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers (BVDG) issued a statement that said, "Galleries are finally being treated the same as artistic creators and many other cultural businesses. This strengthens their competitiveness and prepares them for the future."

German Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth stated, "The reduced VAT rate is an important signal for the art trade and the cultural contribution of the galleries."

Apparently neither considers photography art, despite 200 years of this inane battle.

Novak has over 48 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.