We pay taxes Everywhere almost on Everything! Visual Artists are not an exception and have to pay taxes. A dancer in a big event gets lakhs/crores as fees but he is not required to pay GST while a visual artist who is already suffering from a poor art market is forced to register for GST and pay the professionals to maintain compliance along with being creative pursuit. 

20 things you must know about GST & Art Market!!!

1. Artist not having GST can sell in their own state but the moment they have to sell in other states they must have GST. To surpass this constraint most artists prefer selling their art at very low cost and in cash to intermediaries and brokers from whom artists gets very low income. E.g. you live in Maharashtra & you took your painting to Delhi to sell then as per law you are expected to be GST registered.
2. The movement of product also attracts e-way bill if the artwork is more than Rs.50000/-. The process is still in an evolving state and many experienced business people are yet to understand it fully. It becomes very difficult for the artists to understand & follow the process.
3. Artists can't sell online since all e-commerce sites require their vendors to be GST compliant. Whereas the world online market is blooming at a very fast rate. So to take advantage of the online market, the artists are expected to be GST compliant.
4. Artists can definitely sell artwork at very low cost to some intermediaries which they can sell on their own account and then of course the artists don't have to be GST registered. But the artists will NOT get the true valuation of their artwork.
5. In the past, before GST, VAT was not applicable on art barring few states. This was done to encourage the art, artists and the creative quotient of the society.
6. There is high focus on MSME (Medium, Small & Micro Enterprises) but no help for individual artists. But they are treated as a business person and so are expected to be GST compliant. 
7. Artists have very poor financial & administrative acumen and so it becomes very difficult for artists to understand the process of e-Way bills, GST, compliance, bookkeeping etc. Very rare individual artists are GST registered. 
8. Artists are not tech savvy and for filing all the monthly GST compliance they can't do it themselves and so hiring a CA to do this on a regular basis is again an additional cost. 
9. Slow markets and lesser focus on art buying and on top of it there is GST to make it even more costly for the buyer.
10. In India, there are extremely few number of artists who could live lavishly by earning from their art during their lifetime. Most famous artists’ artwork sold in high prices only after their death.
11. Countries like China is giving 10yr tax relaxation for art to encourage the art market. No such initiative in India though.
12. Few countries like Germany, Australia and China are sponsoring art events to encourage the art market. In India, the art policies are age old like a lot of other policies which are there for many years.
13. India thinking of 10 year tax holiday for Real Estate but nothing for artist
14. India is taking various steps for the automobile industry but nothing for artists.
15. Tax is fine when incentives are existing… NO ROYALTY for visual artists too…
16. To top all these piracy of art also impacts the genuine artists to earn their proper value.
17. GST for art materials has already increased the cost of material for artists and then when the art doesn't fetch enough income it leads to a poor state for the artists. 
18. Only high valued art sale of the resale of renowned artists attract the common people of lucrative market whereas the rest of the artist community is struggling without sale
19. There are few intermediaries taking advantage of this condition of the artist and cheating them off with very low price.
20. The creative economy from United Nations (UNCTAD): The creative industries are at the crossroads of the arts, culture, business and technology. All these activities are intensive in creative skills and can generate income through trade and intellectual property rights. And the creative industries are defined as mentioned in the image. In India though, we have very distinct treatment for Visual Arts & Performing arts within the ARTS category.

GST a destination based taxation system has not been favourable for Indian Visual Art Industry. With low revenue & increasing cost, artists are struggling to survive! 

This petition has been raised to request the authorities to support Indian Art Industry. One of the key solution be to remove the GST on all visual artwork (paintings, sculptures, murals) for a certain period. This will encourage to have more transparency in the art market and help artists to flourish. It is also likely that this will encourage more bank transactions rather than cash transactions. 

And create an independent body to develop new policies to compete and sustain in the upcoming art market in the world. 

Do you need more reasons (mentioned above) to sign this petition? 

We request you to sign this petition and share with as many people as possible, so that our voices unite to remove GST on Visual Arts. 

All GST laws & details are extracted in consultation with CA Pritesh Maniyar from SNR & Company.