Christie's will pay a fine of $16.7 million for tax evasion
ARTinvestment.RU   13 апреля 2020

The auction house did not pay sales tax art in new-Йорке from 2013 to 2017

last Thursday, April 9, it became known that Christie’s agreed to pay $16.7 million as part of the settlement of cases of improper collection of sales tax in new-йоркском office of the auction house in the period from 2013 to 2017.

During this time, according to the case materials, published Artnet News, new-йоркскому branch of the auction house managed to sign deals amounting to $189 million In his statement, the representative of the Office of the district attorney of the city of new-Йорка noted that Christie's "admitted that they were not registered properly with the local tax authorities for collecting and levying sales tax, despite having a legal obligation to do so."

the Violations were discovered in two departments of the auction house: the Department of private sales (performed in new-Йорке) and in the Department of international sales when purchasers were residents of the city and their purchases were delivered in new-Йорк.

According to representatives of the auction house, this could happen from-за incompetence of a tax Advisor (who is no longer cooperating with Christie's). In 2013 Christie's sought to centralize its international private sales and they were issued through the London office, and associate of the auction house mistakenly assumed that once the sale goes through the English office to collect the sales tax for new-йоркских customers don't need. The legal team of the auction house didn't realize his mistake until 2015, has not yet asked for advice from a third party company. According to internal documents, realizing their mistake, the team of experts on taxes, instead of correcting the situation, tried to hide it and continue doing business without charging sales tax in new-Йорке further.

Commenting on the outcome of the case, press-секретарь the auction house said that "since then (with a 2017-го year, when the investigation began дела. — AI.) the company has revised its recommendations and internal processes ensure compliance with relevant tax laws. Reached, the settlement is the conclusion of this litigation."

According to the agreement, Christie's will have two payments to the Treasury of the city a lump sum in the amount of $10 million to cover a tax debt and an additional $6.7 million to cover the fine and court costs.

the Material was prepared by Maria Kuznetsova, AI

the Source: news.artnet.com