Beta Tank Object Questions Tax Difference Between Art and Furniture

Design studio Beta Tank designed a chair with moving panels that transform it from a functional furniture object (on which tax is payable at 19%) to an art object (tax payable at 7%). Especially in the current age, where the realms of art and design are continually merging, the object offers a particularly evocative point of view. The object comments on European tax regulations, which state that design objects must be sold at a higher VAT rate than pieces of art.

The piece was commissioned by Design Miami/Basel for the W Hotels Designer of the Future Award earlier this year. The object can be either a chair, with flat wooden panels facing upwards, or an object of art, by spinning the panels around to reveal pyramids. 

[via Dezeen]