“Our industry is being watched with greater diligence.” -ROBERT DIMIN OF NEW YORK’S DENNY DIMIN GALLERY
Robert Dimin of the New York-based Denny Dimin gallery, which is showing at Untitled Art, Miami this year, says he sought counsel from an accountant and lawyer ahead of the fair, in light of the recent legislation. “Our industry is being watched with greater diligence,” Dimin says. “As a young gallery, even a small mistake could send us into a spiral with legal problems.”
As collectors flood in from other states that already have new protocols in place, dealers exhibiting in Miami may have to consider the sales tax rate in the state to which the work will be shipped if the buyer does not walk out of the fair with it. Amid the confusion over state-by-state tax rules, the cost of compliance will fall most heavily on smaller galleries that “do not have an infrastructure in place or access to tax experts to [help them navigate] the new rules”, Schoelkopf says.
Dimin agrees, noting that the tax hurdles are daunting for younger galleries that may make an unknowing misstep. “Unlike Gagosian, we can’t just drop six or seven figures to lawyers and the government to right a wrong,” he says.