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Tax assistance

The tax of every sale, suggested from your answers.

WrkLst suggests the VAT or sales tax of each sale — the reduced rate for original art, the margin scheme, sales to other countries, exports, US sales tax state by state — says why, watches the thresholds that make you register somewhere new and prepares your figures for your tax adviser. A suggestion, not tax advice: you and your adviser decide.
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On every sale

A suggestion in words, with its reason.

A sale’s Tax section says in words what WrkLst suggests — “VAT 7%: original artwork, private buyer in Germany” — and Why? names the legal basis. Where the work goes is taken from the client’s address; how the buyer gets the work, and where it is when it is sold, are asked on the sale, and a work at a fair or out on consignment is found by itself.

Each line has its own treatment: a work, the shipping, another item, a commission. A rate you type yourself is kept and marked as changed by hand, with the suggestion beside it, and Use suggestions applies them all. A case WrkLst does not cover is decided by hand from a list of treatments, and whatever has to be settled before the invoice is issued — a VAT number to check, an address to complete — is said with the way to settle it.

  • Why?
  • Legal basis
  • Each line
  • Use suggestions
  • Changed by hand
  • Decide by hand
Sales and invoices
What the suggestion reads

Your works, your buyers, your businesses.

Entered once, where they belong, and read on every sale.

  1. Works

    A tax class for each work

    Each work carries its tax class — an original painting or sculpture, a screenprint, an artist’s photograph, a collector’s piece — with the legal test as help, and whether it is sold as usual or under the margin scheme, with where and from whom it was acquired. Set them for many works at once.

  2. Buyers

    VAT numbers checked

    A business buyer’s VAT number is checked with the official register — the German Federal Central Tax Office, VIES or HMRC — and the result is kept with its date. US resale and exemption certificates are kept with their state, form and expiry.

  3. Businesses

    Who sells, and from where

    Settings › Tax asks about each business that sells — the gallery, a second company, the artist — in plain words: where it is established, its locations and its registrations abroad. Each business has its own invoices and can have its own website shop.

  4. Margin scheme

    VAT only on your margin

    A work bought from a private seller or under the margin scheme can be sold under it: the VAT is taken only from your margin and not shown on the invoice, and the margin ledger is kept for your adviser.

  5. Proof

    Exports and EU deliveries

    A tax-free sale needs its proof on file — the export papers, the confirmation of an EU delivery. Reports › Tax lists each one with its deadline, and you upload the proof to the sale.

  6. Website shop

    The tax at the checkout

    With tax assistance on, the WrkLst shop charges the tax that follows from your answers and the buyer’s address, and a business buyer in another EU country enters its VAT number, checked as they type.

Where you sell from

Germany, the UK and the US — and more.

Outside Germany, the UK and California, WrkLst suggests the tax but does not check your country’s own invoicing rules; Settings › Tax says so.
Germany
19% and 7% for original art, the margin scheme, the small-business rule, sales to businesses and private buyers in other EU countries with OSS, exports, and a charity’s 7% for its purpose-related sales.
United Kingdom
20% and 0%, the margin scheme, sales while you are not registered for VAT, exports and Northern Ireland.
United States
Sales tax state by state where you are registered or present — California, New York by Publication 718, Tennessee and the other states whose rules are in the register — with rates by address, resale and exemption certificates and marketplace sales.
Austria
Galleries, artists and artists’ estates: 13% on an artist’s own works and for a gallery that is no reseller, the margin scheme and the advance VAT return (UVA).
Italy
Artists and galleries: the reduced rates for art, the regime forfettario, the stamp duty, the FatturaPA file for SdI and the periodic VAT figures (LIPE).
Singapore
Galleries: GST at 9%, exports, tourist refunds (eTRS), works in a Free Trade Zone or a Zero-GST warehouse, and the Gross Margin Scheme.
Other EU countries
Where no e-invoicing mandate is in force: the EU rules with your country’s rates, small-business limit and invoice notes.
Anything else
My situation isn’t covered sends us your setup from Settings › Tax or from the sale, and the sale is decided by hand until we can support it.
Thresholds and returns

Know when to register, and hand over the figures.

Reports › Tax shows how close your sales are to the limits that oblige you to register or to charge tax elsewhere — sales to private buyers in other EU countries against €10,000 a year, your UK turnover over the last 12 months, your sales into each US state against its threshold — and the date by which to register. It also names what the figures cannot see, such as sales made outside WrkLst.

For each registration and period, WrkLst prepares the sales side of your returns from what was charged — in Germany the advance VAT return, the EC sales list and the OSS return; the UK’s VAT return boxes; California’s, New York’s and Tennessee’s sales tax returns; Austria’s UVA, Singapore’s GST F5 and Italy’s LIPE. You or your adviser file them; input VAT and purchases stay with your adviser.

Rates and rules are dated entries in a register WrkLst keeps current for every account: a change in the law is a new entry from its date, and a sale already invoiced keeps the rate it was charged.

  • OSS threshold
  • US economic nexus
  • UK registration
  • Proof deadlines
  • Returns per period
  • Rates kept current
Before you start

Off until you turn it on.

  1. Opt-in

    Nothing changes by itself

    Your sales, invoices and website shop work as before until someone with the accounting permission turns tax assistance on for a business under Settings › Tax.

  2. Pricing

    In every plan

    Tax assistance is part of the software: no add-on, and no charge on the sale.

  3. Not advice

    Your adviser decides

    WrkLst’s tax features make suggestions. They are not tax or legal advice and do not replace a tax adviser: WrkLst gives you the tools to put your tax adviser’s instructions into practice.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to put your adviser’s instructions into practice?

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